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THE PHILOSOPHY 



THE HUMAN YOICE 

EMBRACING ITS 

PHYSIOLOGICAL HISTORY; 

TOGETHER WITH A 

SYSTEM OF PRINCIPLES, 

BY WHICH 

CRITICISM IN THE ART OF ELOCUTION 

MAY BE RENDERED INTELLIGIBLE, 

AND 

INSTRUCTION, DEFINITE AND COMPREHENSIVE. 

TO WHICH IS ADDED 

A BRIEF ANALYSIS 

OF 

SONG AJYD RECITATIVE. 

BY JAMES RUSH, M.D. 






FIFTH EDITION, ENLARGED. 

PHILADELPHIA 
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO 

LONDON: TRUBNER & CO. 

1859. 




fa. 



Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1859, 

BY JAMES RUSH, M. D., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the 

Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



CRISSY & MARKLEY, PRINTERS, 

Goldsmiths Hall, Library St. 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION, 
SECTION I. 

II. 

III. 



IV. 



Page. 

42 



V. 

VI. 
VII. 
VIII. 



IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 



Of the General Divisions of Vocal Sound, with a 
more particular account of its Pitch, 

Of the Radical and Vanishing movement ; and its 
different forms in Speech, Song, and Recitative, 

Of the Elementary Sounds of the English Lan- 
guage ; with their relations to the Radical and 
Vanish, 

Of the Influence of the Radical and Vanish, in 
the production of the various phenomena of 
Syllables, 

Of the Causative Mechanism of the Voice, in 
relation to its different Qualities, 

Of the Expression of Speech, 

Of the Pitch of the Voice, 

Of the Melody of Speech ; with an inquiry how 
far the terms Key and Modulation are appli- 
cable to it, 

Of the Quality or Kind of Voice, 

Of Abruptness of Speech, 

Of the Time of the Voice, 

Of the Intonation at Pauses, 

Of the Grouping of Speech, 

Of the Interval of the Rising Octave, 

Of the Interval of the Rising Fifth, 

Of the Interval of the Rising Third, 

Of the Intonation of Interrogative Sentences, 

Of the Interval of the Rising Second, 



67 



101 



116 

131 
161 
175 



181 
201 
202 
205 
231 
241 
252 
255 
256 
259 
295 



CONTENTS 



SECTION XIX. Of the Interval of the Rising Semitone ; and of 

the Chromatic Melody founded thereon, 299 

XX. Of the Downward Radical and Vanish, 313 

XXI. Of the Downward Octave, 317 

XXII. Of the Downward Fifth, 319 

XXIII. Of the Downward Third, 322 

XXIV. Of the Downward Second and Semitone, 327 

XXV. Of the Wave of the Voice, 328 

XXVI. Of the Equal-Wave of the Octave, 335 

XXVII. Of the Equal-Wave of the Fifth, 336 

XXVIII. Of the Equal- Wave of the Third, 337 

XXIX. Of the Equal- Wave of the Second, 338 

XXX. Of the Equal- Wave of the Semitone, 349 

XXXI. Of the Wave of unequal Intervals, 351 

XXXII. Of the Intonation of Exclamatory Sentences, 362 

XXXIII. Of the Tremor of the Voice, 375 

XXXIV. Of Force of Voice, 385 

XXXV. Of the Radical Stress, 388 

XXXVI. Of the Median Stress, 394 

XXXVII. Of the Vanishing Stress, 397 

XXXVIII. Of the Compound Stress, 399 

XXXIX. Of the Thorough Stress, 401 
XL. Of the Loud Concrete, 405 
XLI. Of the Time of the Concrete, ib. 
XLII. Of the Aspiration, 407 
XLIII. Of the Emphatic Vocule, 411 
XLIV. Of the Guttural Vibration, 413 
XLV. Of Accent, 415 
XLVI. Of Emphasis, 421 

Of Emphasis of Quality, 422 

Of Emphasis of Force, 423 

Of the Radical Emphasis, 424 

Of the Median Emphasis, 425 

Of the Vanishing Emphasis, 426 

Of the Compound Emphasis, 427 
Of the Emphasis of the Thorough Stress, and 

the Loud Concrete, 429 

Of the Aspirated Emphasis, ib. 



CONTENTS. V 

SECTION XLVI. Of the Emphatic Vocule, 430 

Of the Guttural Emphasis, 431 

Of the Temporal Emphasis, 432 

Of the Emphasis of Pitch, 433 

Of the Emphasis of the Rising Octave, 435 

Of the Emphasis of the Rising Fifth, 437 

Of the Emphasis of the Rising Third, 439 

Of the Emphasis of the Rising Semitone, 440 

Of the Downward Concrete, 442 

Of the Downward Octave, 444 

Of the Downward Fifth, 446 

Of the Downward Third, 448 

Of the Emphasis of the Wave, 450 
Of the Equal-Single-Direct Wave of the Octave, 451 
Of the Equal-Single-Direct Wave of the Fifth, 453 

Of the Unequal-Single Wave, 454 

Of the Emphasis of the Tremor, 456 

A Recapitulating View of Emphasis, 458 

XLVII. Of the Drift of the Voice, 466 

Of the Diatonic Drift, 467 

Of the Drift of the Semitone, 468 

Of the Drift of the Downward Vanish, ib. 

Of the Drift of the Wave of the Second, ib. 

Of the Drift of the Wave of the Semitone, ib. 

Of the Drift of Quantity, 469 

Of the Drift of Force, ib. 

Of the Drift of the Loud Concrete, ib. 

Of the Drift of Median Stress, ib. 

The Partial Drift of the Tremor, 470 

The Partial Drift of Aspiration, ib. 

The Partial Drift of Guttural Vibration, ib. 

The Partial Drift of Interrogation, ib. 

The Partial Drift of the Phrases of Melody, ib. 

XL VIII. Of the Vocal Signs of Thought and Passion, 478 
Of Thought or Passion indicated 

By the Piano of the Voice, 491 

By the Forte of the Voice, 492 

By Quickness of Voice, ib. 



vi CONTENTS. 

SECTION 



XLVIII. By Slowness of Voice, 


492 


By Quality of Voice, 


ib. 


By the Rising and Falling Semitone, 


498 


By the Rising and Falling Second, 


ib. 


By the Rising Third, Fifth and Octave, 


ib. 


By the Downward Third, Fifth and Octave, 


494 


By the Wave of the Semitone. 


ib. 


By the Wave of the Second, 


495 


By the Waves of the Third, Fifth and Octave, 


ib. 


By the Radical Stress, 


ib. 


By the Median Stress, 


496 


By the Vanishing Stress, 


ib. 


By the Compound Stress, 


ib. 


By the Thorough Stress, 


497 


By the Tremor of the Second, and wider interval 


s, ib. 


By the Tremor of the Semitone, 


ib. 


By the Aspiration, 


ib. 


By the Guttural Vibration, 


498 


By the Emphatic Vocule, 


ib. 


By the Broken Melody, 


ib. 


XLIX. Of the Means of Instruction in Elocution, 


505 


Of Practice on the Alphabetic Elements, 


515 


Of Practice on the Time of Elements, 


520 


Of Practice on the Vanishing Movement, 


521 


Of Practice on Force, 


ib. 


Of Practice on Stress, 


522 


Of Practice on Pitch, 


523 


Of Practice on Melody, 


524 


Of Practice on the Cadence, 


525 


Of Practice on the Tremor, 


ib. 


Of Practice on Quality of Voice, 


526 


Of Practice in Rapidity of Speech, 


528 


L. Of the Rythmus of Speech, 


538 


LI. Of the Faults of Readers, 


552 


Of the Faults in Quality, 


564 


Of Faults in Time, 


665 


Of Faults in Force, 


566 


Of Faults in Pitch, 


569 



CONTENTS. vii 



SECTION LI. Of Faults in the Concrete Movement, 


569 


Of Faults in the Semitone, 


570 


Of Faults in the Second, 


571 


Of Faults in the Melody of Speech, 


572 


First Fault in Melody, 


ib. 


Second Fault in Melody, 


573 


Third Fault in Melody, 


574 


Fourth Fault in Melody, 


575 


Fifth Fault in Melody, 


ib. 


Sixth Fault in Melody, 


576 


Seventh Fault in Melody, 


577 


Of Faults in the Cadence, 


580 


Of Faults in the Intonation at Pauses, 


582 


Of Faults in the Third, 


583 


Of Faults in the Fifth, 


584 


Of Faults in the Downward Movement, 


ib. 


Of Faults in the Discrete Movement, 


ib. 


Of Faults in the Wave, 


585 


Of Faults in Drift, 


687 


Of Faults in the Grouping of Speech, 


590 


Of the Fault of Mimicry, 


591 


Of Monotony of Voice, 


594 


Of Ranting in Speech, 


595 


Of Affectation in Speech, 


ib. 


Of Mouthing in Speech, 


ib. 


Of the Faults of Stage-Personation, 


599 


Conclusion, 


616 


A Brief Analysis of Song and Recitative, 


625 


Of Song, 


626 


Of Recitative, 


659 


PAGE LINE READ 




EKRORS. 213 - - - - 27 - - - - word. 

424 - - - - 17 - - - - antithesis. 
504 - - - - 26 - - - - ocular. 
539 .... 31 ... . canonical. 
G01 - - - - 2 - - - - Identity. 





TO THE READER. 



All the reprints of this work have successively received additions. The 
recorded analysis and principles of the First edition having been derived from 
exact observation and experiment, remain almost without alteration. The 
arrangement has however been slightly changed. Two new sections, with 
other divisions, have been added, in amplification of preceding views: and 
there will be found throughout the work, additional facts, principles, and illus- 
trations, together with esthetic reflections on the subject of vocal Science 
and Art; while variations without number have been made in the explanatory 
phraseology. It would have been both embarrassing and useless to have 
marked the places of all the additional facts, principles, divisions, and no- 
menclature. It is enough, to state the amount. The several editions, with- 
out the prefaces, and deducting the blank portions not common to all, contain re- 
spectively in letters, estimated by pages and lines, about the following numbers : 

EDITIONS. CONTAINS ABOUT PUBLISHED. 

First 742,000 letters, January, 1827. 

Second 814,000 " June, 1833. 

Third 850,000 " December, 1844. 

Fourth 1,024,000 " January, 1855. 

Fifth 1,232,000 " May, 1859. 

The first writing of the Work occupied about three years of leisure from 
Professional and Social engagements. The subsequent additions may alto- 
gether have employed about eighteen months. 



PEEFACE 



FIFTH EDITION. 



What has been offered in the several Prefaces to this Work, 
is to be taken as only a brief notice of the manner in which it 
has been regarded, within the period of thirty years from its 
publication ; and is intended, rather for an occasional inquirer 
of a future age, to whom it may be interesting, than for the 
present generation, who, while indifferent to the work itself, 
can have no curiosity about its early progress and its subsequent 
fate. 

Having however, through more sources than one,, heard the 
remark, that its prefaces are looked upon as the only intelli- 
gible part of the volume j* I have, to avoid driving even an 
infirm understanding altogether away, retained them in their 
present place and not transferred them as I had intended, to an 
Appendix, in this edition ; being further induced thereto, by 
the consideration, that with the record of its progress, which is 
the principal object, they contain occasional reflections, inti- 
mating some general idea of its design. Still, if the future 
reader should feel no interest in early opinions, either friendly 
or adverse to it, he may pass on to the Introduction ; which as 
a constituent part of the subject, regards what the Art of 

* For an account of the purposes of the double comma here introduced, see 
a note on the first page of the Introduction. 
2 



Speech has already accomplished 3 and what is yet to be done 
in its purposes, both of Instruction, and Taste. But to continue 
the record. 

Since the date of the fourth edition, in eighteen hundred and 
fifty-five, those who hold a certain influence, in the higher 
departments of learnings still true to the Mede-and-Persian 
normality of the Majesterial mind, which altereth not 3 con- 
tinue to maintain, with here and there a rebellious exception, 
the same indifference to the Analysis ; with a sly, if not an 
open opposition to its creeping advancement : although they 
might find in its pages, something they have pretended to be in 
search of. 

There is however another, though humble class, for so, until 
our purposes and means are comprehended, we are obliged to 
call ourselves 3 who are still laboring with gradual success to 
enlarge the number of scholars and advocates of the New 
Elocution, and who, in their unheeded exertions, are contented 
with this sarcastic reflection on the lazy pride and unproductive 
favoritism of Scholastic Patronage 3 there never was a wise or 
holy reformation, but the Lowly and Despised first helped the 
master of it. 

But while regarding their exertions, especially throughout 
the Northern States 3 under the influence of Mr. William Russell, 
Principal of the Normal Institute at Lancaster, Massachusetts, 
and of his able Coadjutors 3 in extending the work of widely 
reforming, if not founding anew the whole Art of Speech, with- 
out a single Judas to desert, for he could not betray them ; I 
was accidentally told, that in an English Review, of high 
authority, and extended circulation, Some Body has, for the 
thirty pieces or silver, come along with the servants of the 
High Priests of the old elocution, to lay, and this is all I would 
hear, not only unmerciful hands on the 4 Philosophy of the 
human voice 3' but unmerciful sneers on its Author: being in 
his hardy onset, safely assured, that none of our company would 
defensively think of cutting off an ear, from one so deaf to the 
sound of the speaking voice, as to furnish the verdict of his 
having already lost both of his dull, and as a < paid volunteer' 



in partizan-acoustics, his criminally dull and worthless ears in 
some other way.* 

Besides, we profess to be only like peaceful and industrious 
bees, gathering from nature an abundant store for future use; 
yet wishing it to be remembered, that the busy collectors, are 
by some wise ordination, provided with the means of defense, 
under sufficient provocation ; which means however," the quiet 
laborers of our little hive have not yet had, and trust they may 
not have, reason to employ. 

In the second page of our introduction, I early declared my 
resolution, neither to read, nor seriously to consider, any ob- 
jections against this Analysis and system, that are not the 
result of a scrutinizing comparison of its descriptions with the 
phenomena of nature herself: which is only stating in other 
words, a precept of the Baconian Logic 3 that justifies us in 
disregarding every objection to observations and experiments, 
not drawn from observations and experiments, more extensive 
and exact ; for this method saves much ill-conditioned and 
wasteful argument. Certainly then, if our mercenary assailant, 
in rejecting the facts on which we have endeavored to raise a 
Natural Science of speech, does not, with a more acute and 
attentive ear, give us the facts by which he rejects them 3 he 
must look to his own self-inflicted mortification, if we neither 

* If we were disposed to be sportfully classical, we might, from our pre- 
sumptuous Reviewer having the knack of so readily transmuting pen, ink, 
paper, and ignorance, into pay^ have otherwise represented him as the 'inge- 
nium pingue,' the gross-witted Midas; for whose audacious decision against 
the musical claims of Appollo^ the indignant yet compromising God did not 
cut-off, but only closed his ears from music and speech, in providing for their 
sub-animal wants, by the appropriate gift of greater extension. 

Nee Delius aures 
Humanam stolidas patitur retinere figuram : 
Sed trahit in spatium ; 
Induiturque aures lente gradientis aselli. 

Ovid Met. B. XL I, 174. 

The God to punish such presumptuous pride, 
Yet still with justice swayed to mercy's side 3 
To those so dull and tuneless ears deereed 
A bounteous length, to serve the Ass's need. 



read what he writes, nor take particular notice of any report 
upon it. 

"While in England some years ago, a Publisher proposed to 
me, and offered on his own partj notwithstanding school-book 
copy-right and other opposing influences of British Elocution 3 
to print a London edition of the New Analysis. But knowing 
from the sovereignty of Truth and Time, in their unfailing 
patronage of every deserving effort in science, that with their 
wisdom in cause and consequence, they always bestow it in 
their own procrastinating way ; and believing that certain in- 
strumentalities and subornations of Trade, are essential to 
present success ; I declined making what I then thought a 
useless submission of the work, either to the negative effect of 
Foreign indifference, or to that anticipated Foreign opposition, 
which has presented itself in the form of a thoughtless, and I 
must suppose a reversible condemnation. For a ' cry of critics' 
is by no means to be let loose in our case, as in that of the 
great-baby-ism of a banquet-speech ; an every-day marketable 
fiction ; some threadbare history, a thousand times re-written ; 
and the i light reading' biographical gossip of a popular career ; 
which with the common-places of knowledge, a habit of scholar- 
ship, and the haste of uncorrected thought, may be whipped- 
over in an evening, by a run and skip of the pen. Nor will 
more than thrice 'ten sterling pounds per sheet,' pay for the 
Pauses and Plunges, the re-pausing and re-plunging, necessary 
for a deep and thorough inquiry into the new analysis and 
classification, and for an impartial and responsible decision 
upon it.* 

* To Jeffrey go, be silent and discreet, 
His pay is just ten sterling pounds per sheet. English Bards. I. 70. 
See the whole of Byron's retortive method of distilling down to a caput mor~ 
tuurn, the enlarged spleen and personal gall of his merciless Scotch Reviewer: 
who though ' self constituted Judge' in the Court of the Muses, could not make 
himself prophet enough, to foresee in the youthful Poet, the potential pen, and 
the future actual vengeance of his intended victim : and who showed quite as 
much ill-natured surprise, at the bare idea of a Noble Lord presuming to pub- 
lish a poem, as our Englishman of the thrice ten silver pieces has done, at the 
idea of one whom he takes to be a Democrat, daring to utter some original 
truths, which from their not being yet vulgarized, he, himself a democratic 
thinker and writer, cannot comprehend. 



PREFACE. Xlll 

This work is to be thoroughly studied as a whole, and taught 
in all its fulness ; not to be here and there sketched-off, in a 
few pages of a quarterly journal, and poorly illustrated by occa- 
sional examples of its good or indifferent quality. If, in execu- 
ting it, we had thought of the Reviewers, we would have imagined 
an individual of those ready scribes 3 as Horace denotes the 
genus, standing on one foot, and writing without fatigue 3 taking 
his text from the Title of the Work 3 peeping between its uncut 
leaves 3 mistaking its theme 3 undervaluing its contents, for the 
purpose of concealing the use of them 3 and then extracting 
what would suit his sorry ambition to furnish a useless article, 
he might choose to call an original essay of his own. 

Having learned however, that at least one or two orders for 
the book had come from England ; and supposing, that without 
being an object of general interest, it might here and there 
attract a curious reader, if set before him 3 I proposed to the 
American publisher, to try an experiment with it, on the noise- 
less, candid, and unhired English intellect. Fifty copies of 
the fourth edition were sent : and immediately thereupon, one 
of the most powerful and popular Periodicals of the Kingdom, 
supported by its full share of an array of the understanding, 
learning, research, and of the pen-paying, and mind-impairing 
Journalism of the Nineteenth Century, has determined for all 
those who do not read and think for themselves, that even if 
there could be the human impossibility of a Natural Science of 
Speech, the i Philosophy ' has not the miraculous Gift of ear 
and tongue, nor the descriptive and classifying pen to furnish it. 

And yet to record fairly, I have met with one instance, from 
which it does appear 3 there is not a universal deafness to the 
voice Of the work, in our over-critical, over-compiling, and com- 
pared with what she has been, and with what she rightly should 
be, perhaps our under-producing Mother Island. But notwith- 
standing the candid admission by Better England herself, of 
the decline of the originality and vigor of her intellect, into the 
desultory and garbling method of Criticism, which under its 
meanly masked, and irresponsible Oligarchy, has at last driven 
the debilitated pen with its ' thrilling' narratives, ' startling ' fie- 



xiv PREFACE. 

tions, and threadbare truths, to seek the protective patronage of 
the reading million ; still we should not altogether adopt the com- 
mon opinion, that a critical age, more than the declining life of 
man, though it may generally, should be necessarily and with- 
out exception, garrulous on every-day thoughts and things 3 and 
turn drowsy over the tasking pages of original truth ; should be 
given-up to fondling the pets of a family ; and to being peevish, 
or rude, or vacantly ' sans ears ' to the voice of the stranger 
without the gate of its calculating generosity. For we have all 
heard that Cato, the Censor, though of the rough Roman Horde, 
the piratical archetype of our boasted Anglo-Saxon race, did 
in his old age, lay open his mind to new and refined instruction, 
even through the embarrassing inlet of a foreign tongue. 

The slightest clearing however, of the brow in a frowning 
parent deserves our grateful acknowledgment ; and it is justly 
to be recorded here, that about eight years ago, there fell into 
my hands, and it is now before me, a new edition of Garrick's 
manner of reading the Liturgy 5 prefaced with a ' Discourse on 
public reading,' by one calling himself a ' Tutor in Elocution,' 
and published at London, and Cambridge, in eighteen hundred 
and forty ; thirteen years after the date of the c Philosophy of 
the human voice.' There is loosely scattered over this Discourse, 
and ambitiously appropriated to itself, though poorly under- 
stood, some of the facts and principles taken without acknow- 
ledgment from the 'Philosophy;' while its Author is quoted 
by name, in an out-of-the-way foot-note, for a single term of his 
nomenclature. On the undefined and limited ground of these 
disjointed facts and principles, the Tutor announces a * forth- 
coming work on the human voice, and its expression in speech;' 
derived, as his own confident promise and his means lead us to 
conclude, from some other source than that of his own observa- 
tion and reflection. If after nineteen years, this great work has 
not forth-come, we must think, from what he has already in com- 
mon with the 'Philosophy,' and from his having so vague an idea 
of defining and dividing 3 that it would save both himself and his 
readers much trouble, to republish if permitted, the work, of 
which he seems so clearly to approve, rather than furnish a 



PREFACE. XV 

strong resemblance to its contents, in his own manner of de- 
scribing them.* 

He who claims the right to a discovery already published, 
assumes to be either the first and full author of it, or to have 
received an obscure hint of it, in some manner, he is not often 
forward to tell. On which of these two grounds then did the 
Tutor get the general fact, that the intervals of the diatonic 
scale, with the exception of the second, may be perceptibly and 
nameably applied to individual syllables, for the purpose of 
vocal expression ; and that the second alone, is used for unim- 
passioned discourse ? How did he draw from a little corner of 
his mind, the comprehensive induction, that Emphasis, in a 
broad and philosophic definition, should include the distinguish- 
able detail of every mode of the voice ? From whose extended 
view, did he sketch on his fifty-ninth page, a synopsis of the 
whole science of Analytic speech ? What taught him to make 
the long overlooked but remarkable distinction between the 
diatonic melody 3 which he awkwardly calls, ' speech-melody 3' 
and the contrasted expression of other intervals, when laid upon 
it ? Who told him of that threefold and nice distinction in 
syllabic Force j called in the ' Philosophy' the Radical, Median, 
and Vanishing Stress ? Where did he learn, that the usual elo- 
cutionary terms, found even in his own Editorial little-book 
are, from the want of analytic description, altogether indefinite 
and uninstructive ? And what suggested to him, without see- 
ing an exact system in his 'mind's eye,' if he has one, or some- 
where in print, the idea of the Old Elocution being so vague, 
imperfect, and impracticable, that we therefore now require a 
new, precise, and Scientific Institute of the speaking voice ? 

The history of the voice contained in the following Work, 
far from being only as the Tutor could understand and repre- 
sent it j a hasty catching-up of unconnected details, to suit a 

* The Tutor has more recently published two small pamphlets, under the re- 
spective names of an ' Introductory lecture,' and 'Acoustics and Logic ;' in which 
his approbation of our new Analysis and system of the voice is further shown by 
his free, yet still garbled use of its pages. In the present comments, I refer 
indiscriminately to each of these three scrap-sketches ; which may be resolved 
into cases either of sad halucination or of unblushing plagiary. 



XVI PREFACE. 

compiler's purposes 3 embraces generalities of related pheno- 
mena, deliberately gathered within that ever audible, yet till 
lately, unentered field of intonation ; where the natural voices 
of thought and passion had long floated on the air, inviting, but 
still awaiting, the event of a careful classification and nomen- 
clature. No aimless and hasty catching here and there, at un- 
assorted sounds, astray from intercommunion with the vocal 
unity of that field, could have brought them together even as 
awkwardly as the Tutor has done. He did not find them in 
Mr. Steele, or Mr. Walker, or in Authors who have adopted 
their limited and vague, or erroneous descriptions ; and if they 
were not picked at random, from the ' Philosophy of the human 
voice,' or taken out of some American school-book, carelessly 
representing a few of the facts and principles, detached from 
that < Philosophy,' it might be inferred 3 they were also original 
with him. But an original and pervading truth never stands 
still, nor travels alone in the mind ; and if he who may claim 
to have discovered certain important facts and principles of 
speech, should not himself have seen much further, and more 
clearly into related truths, he must excuse us, if we conclude, 
that he did not first perceive them at all. 

The above case reminds me, that about a year after the first 
appearance of the l Philosophy 3' the Rector of a church in the 
State of New York, published as his own, in a worthless little 
school book 3 with the common promise of a larger work j a hud- 
dled compilation of facts and principles on the subject of the 
voice, identical with some of those set-forth in the ' Philosophy;' 
and with the very verbal examples, used for their illustration ; 
thus antedating the Tutor in his claims by about eleven years. 
Had he regarded the words of the Evangelist, more than his 
own hopes, that a fraud undetected might pass for a discovered 
truth, he would have thought of his Great, but unheeded Mas- 
ter's liberal and just imperative; which we alter for present 
application. Render his own unto Caesar j and to the literary 
Pilferer, the Bare-Faced Nothings that belong to him. 

This case of the American Rector is here added, to show 
that we have no contra-national, nor exclusive views to foreign 
grand or petty-plagiary : and to say, that could we be allowed 



PREFACE. XVll 

to turn from the truth and honor of Science, to a just personal 
retribution, we might reciprocate the Reviewing-favor of the 
Periodical stipendiary 3 in kindly drawing British attention to 
our Title-page, and in hastening the call for this Fifth edition 3 
by hanging him up, with his deficient ear, anonymously con- 
spicuous, between two of those, who are found with, or use 
without acknowledgment, or who sneakingly carry away what 
does not belong to them. 

There is here no prying curiosity about the names, nor idle 
thoughts on the motives of individuals. The rights of truth 
and justice, from the universality of their claims, should defend 
themselves by general means, without descending into local or 
special contention with the temporary interests of men. Our 
readers will perhaps find, we have something to spare ; and we 
may add, that with a courteous use, and acknowledgment, it 
might have been taken, with our recorded thanks for the 
patronage. This work was written for the fair and profitable 
use of intelligent and honorable Instructors ; but the same sen- 
timent that offers it with no view whatever to personal advan- 
tage, nor to present approbation, must necessarily turn with 
contempt and indignation, from meanness, artifice, and fraud, 
in those who choose to accept its assistance. 

If the smart writer of common-places, and Jester- Wit of the 
day, on once askings 'Who reads an American book,' had only 
added 3 the Englishman who steals from it, he would himself 
have made all the taunting fun in the case ; and not have left- 
others to supply his unlucky oversight, by what he would most 
have felt 3 a retroverted sarcasm. For he has somewhere 
remarked, that i it is all over with a wit,' when his expected 
applause is given to an unexpected turn against him : a condi- 
tion to which he never even dreamed himself liable. 

While engaged upon this preface, I met with an Article in 
the Westminster Review, for July, eighteen hundred and fifty 
six ; in which the writer, with unusual candor towards this 
Country, gives a flagrant instance, showing, that he who pur- 
loins from an 'American book,' must have been the 'who' to 
'read' it. The case is •this. One of his countrymen brought 



out a Latin-English dictionary, claiming to be based on the 
Italian work of Forcellini, and the German of Freund ; ninety- 
five per cent, of which, says the writer, is servilely copied from 
a translation of the last named Author by several American 
hands, and published at New York : while apparently to hood- 
wink his conscience in the act, the literary plunder is ' most 
vehemently condemned ' by the depredator, in the very act of 
carrying it away. It is no set-off to this charge of international 
freebooting that the instances of piracy by America, on Bri- 
tain, and Continental Europe, are perhaps more than a thousand- 
fold, beyond those of a reverse direction of the Bucaneer 
descent ; for vices thus credited are debtors still, and are not 
to be canceled by the balance of an account between them. 

We owe this however to the Tutor ; that having used with 
approbation, some of the leading principles of the New system ; 
and promising a fuller detail of them, he has intimated his 
belief in the possibility of so describing the constituents of 
speech, as to enable himself or others, to found a practical 
method of instruction upon them : which is a considerable 
advance towards introducing among his countrymen, a New 
Order in the Art of speaking; at whatever time and in what- 
soever manner it may be applied, to explain and justify upon 
principle, any instinctive proprieties, and to correct by rule, 
any unconscious errors, that may be found in their old and 
imperfect system. 

But as to our Aggressor of the Thirty Pieces 3 the pay for spite- 
ful buffets 5 with perhaps no more eye for costume than ear for 
speech ; why may he not be some Professor under the now declin- 
ing school of elocution ; who, fearful of losing even his short- 
lived profits in an ephemeral text-book, and with an inveterate 
pride in the ill-fashioned and threadbare suit of his mastership, 
has artfully set himself to prevent others from adopting the 
new style of Oratorical Bobe, in its Natural cast of vocal 
drapery ; which on being first presented to him, he must have 
yet had sense enough to perceive, could never be made to fold 
gracefully on himself. And it is here to be remarked, that 
when a critic of the trading sort has a pecuniary, an ambitious, 



a dogmatic, or a grumbling interest in condemning a work, he is 
very apt to confound his argument on the subject, with some 
querulous feeling towards the author, who may inadvertently 
have brushed against his temperament, or thwarted his calcu- 
lations.* 

It is for all of us, an excellent Law of Suspicion, that sub- 
jects the pretensions of both Invention and Discovery, to the 
slow and cautious test of Time. For in the present distrusted 
state of human promises and powers, it affords the only means 
of protection against the artful haste of an Imposter, by cutting- 
off his sole reliance on the chance of immediate success. It is 
however no legitimate part of this defensive ordination, that 
even questionable claims should, with a vain view to put them 
beyond the future reach of a just and decisive judgment 3 be 
presumptuously outlawed by an incompetent Tribunal, before 
their regular term of trial. 

But whatever may be the fair or biased opinions of others, 
one conclusion is quite satisfactory to the claims of the New 
Analysis ; and it may in future prevent unnecessary dispute on 
those claims 3 that the portion here offered as original, having 
been a subject of sneering animadversion, which would certainly 
spare no controverting means, at the command of European 
research, during thirty years of opportunity 3 there seems to 
be almost an assurance, that its facts and principles will not be 
hereafter referred to any other than a modern, and quite unex- 
pectedly, for the practical outwitting of the Reverend Jester-wit, 
to a Transatlantic source. 

* It is an incident, deserving a place in our present record, that while the 
thousand hovering Hawks of British Periodicals dive at, and clutch-up any and 
every sort of game, just as it alights before the public, they should for seven 
and twenty years, have passed by our folded wing, quietly waiting for future 
flight ; thinking us'perhaps, too tasteless or tough for their beak j and a kind of 
nourishment altogether foreign to their habitual process of assimilation : and 
yet, to drop our figure 3 at the moment this volume was to be distributed from 
the shelves of a London Bookseller, that it should have roused the trading 
interest of some Fellow of the Selfish Society of School-book Copyrights, to 
attack, and attempt to break down our proposed substitute for his superannuated 
Art of reading ; and thus by endeavoring to sustain its decrepitude, to try to 
prolong his threatened occupation. 



XX PREFACE. 

An early and short paragraphic notice of this work, which I 
have heard, appeared in an English magazine j far from finding 
in its broad and leading principles, the traces of any former 
system, yet perhaps to avoid the obligation of a critical survey 
of its character j pronounced it to be a century in advance of 
the age. It may indeed be so. But the truth of to-morrow, 
is the truth of to-day : and he who thus cautiously gave a pros- 
pective opinion, instead of an immediate and responsible judg- 
ment, which the ground of that opinion must have justified 3 
was not quite critically honest towards the work, nor to his 
own age prophetically civil ; since in then offering the hope of 
that future award, which he thus acknowledged to be justly 
due, he rather invidiously questioned the capacity of his co- 
temporaries, by assigning the power of comprehending the 
Work, to intellects a century in advance of theirs. 

And yet after all, what have the friends of the New and Pro- 
gressive System, to do with the true or false calculation, and 
the waste-work of the every-day tongue and pen ? Let topics 
of the hour wrestle with topics of the hour. We offer to pos- 
terity, part of the history of the Laws of Nature, in the human 
voice 3 here gathered into a comprehensive, and therefore to the 
present majority of those it may concern, an incomprehensible 
Physical Science of Speech. If the critical Journalism of the 
Nineteenth Century, though generally co-even with the know- 
ledge of the times, has not been able to rise so far above some 
of its embarrassments and errors, as to perceive the extricating 
agency of a few original and simple truths ; but has with the 
old subterfuge of an indolent or deficient intellect, attempted 
to beat them down by sneer and denial, all that our duty here 
requires, is to record the story of the harmless assault, in this 
now unregarded volume ; which with its still unshaken belief in 
the future prevalence and sway of those truths, may yet go-forth 
and endure, because it announces, and endeavors to extend 
them. It was far from our intention, to cast any pearls it 
might contain, before those, who ignorant of their value, 
disappointed thus, at the unavailable proffer, and balked 



into unruly irritation, would only inhumanly turn again and 
rend us. 

Finally, it will be understood, from the view we have taken 
of a senseless opposition j there can be neither here nor else- 
where, an intentional submission to that criticism, which, if not 
deceived through incapacity or ignorance, must know itself to 
be grossly at fault. The ' Philosophy of the human voice,' 
from its manner of observing and representing nature, does not 
owe this submission to any thoughtless attempt to condemn it. 
Yet it cannot conceal a sentiment of pity, for that deafness, 
and that debility of understanding in high places, which thus 
far, it has with all its remedial instruction, utterly failed to 
cure. Nor do I mean to offer a responsive defense of the facts 
and principles set forth in this 'Philosophy:' believing, that 
under an observant, reflective, and candid supervision, they 
will, by the voice of others in unison with the voice of nature, 
at some time truly speak for themselves. 

As a necessary part of this record, I have unfortunately, 
been obliged, under some prospective views, to notice unnotice- 
able, and to me happily, unknown individualities : but having 
on this occasion, taken a nearer view of the offense than of the 
offenders, I have, with generic touches only, and with a miti- 
gated reaction on their thoughtless inroad, been careful to 
treat them as many now, and more hereafter may think, with 
greater kindness than their cases deserve. 



Philadelphia, May 5, 1859. 



PREFACE 



FOURTH EDITION. 



An idea has for some time, been circulating in this country, 
tending to persuade every body, that while they are constitu- 
tionally the sovereigns over their own destiny in government, 
they are also sovereign over the rights of individuality, and the 
restraints of good-breeding, morals, and law ; with the further 
claim to tyrannize over independence of thought, and to bind- 
down the free-ranging power of originality. This last authority 
assumes, that originality, with its Patents of discovery and 
invention, often with us, so cruelly involved in litigation, can- 
not in justice be the privilege of an individual ; that whatever 
apparent novelty a person may promulgate, it is only as the 
spokesman of a committee of the whole human mind, which has 
previously counseled, matured, and directed, all he has reported. 
That what was formerly supposed to be the torch of discovery, 
in a single hand, is, in this popular era of equal rights and 
Intellect-in-Commonj found to be merely a breaking-out, at 
one human spot, of the full-prepared and anticipated light of a 
collective effort in progressive instruction. 

This may indeed be true, of gradual changes in the common 
affairs of life ; and of politicians, in whose craft there is now, 
nothing new under the sun ; of the lawyer, whose thinking by 
the law, is his law of thinking ; of the physician, whose rule of 
progress, is just to keep along with the progress ; of the sec- 



tary, whose orthodoxy means the common-doxy of himself and 
his disciple ; and of the popular Great Man of the day, whose 
endless intimacies so identify him with every body, that his 
concerns in a joint-stock of interest and ambition, both waste 
his mind with reciprocal, and importunate obligations, and take 
from him the power of thinking for himself. It is likewise true 
of governments, which, with occasional commotions, always rise 
or fall by gradual change ; and of some of the arts, particularly 
Architecture ; for though by its own principles, capable of any 
number of distinct and self-unitized orders, yet being without 
suggestive and original models in nature, its improvement and 
decline have been no more than successive variations of pre- 
ceding examples. It is not true however, of those who outstrip 
the world by unrestrained observation and reflection ; unawed 
by the frowns of conventional authority, and far away as pos- 
sible, from the mischievous delusions of the opinions of men. 
For the ' idols of the market,' J of the theatre,' and of the com- 
mon mental-exchange, are idols, deaf as well as dumb 3 and alto- 
gether so impotent, that when implored for the favor of original 
thought, are always implored in vain. Neither is it true of that 
elegant Art of the Landscape, which with its ' directing wand ' 
transforms to a Garden, the wilderness of Nature ; and which 
presented, at the ' Improver's word,' an assemblage of the 
grand, the beautiful, the varied, and the picturesque ; giving to 
England the claim of adding to the 'Nine,' another Muse, 
already in her few counted years, full-endowed with dignity of 
character softened into grace ; yet never hoped-for nor expected, 
because never thought-of before. 

This law of co-equalityj that no one shall, without penalty 
for the offense, have a thought not common to every body else j 
is one of the usual resolves of a popular ' mass-meeting ; ' and 
seems to be a confusion of ideas, in attempting to express the 
simple truism, that no invention or discovery is received by 
the world, until every body can make use of it, or is of the 
same opinion as the author. Since it is with the original truth 
of Science, as with the prudential offer of practical advice ; 
nobody adopts it, except it confirms his previous idea. But 



PREFACE. XXV 

the mass-meeting, not to lessen its little dignity by dropping 
even a letter, is still a mass, and will have its own stubborn 
and head-strong way. The work therefore, of which I here 
offer the fourth edition much enlarged, will I suppose, be 
tried, and perhaps condemned by its rules. If the united intel- 
ligence of the age, joining immediately in the advancement of any 
point of knowledge, is to be the test of its truth, upon the assumed 
ground that the mind of the age, has, up to the last step, pro- 
duced the advancement j the work before us can offer scarcely 
a claim to attention. And I have no pride of authorship to 
prevent the candid declaration, that from its first appearance, 
to this time, a period of twenty-seven years, its only direct 
debt of gratitude is to a comparatively small number of teach- 
ers, to a few inquiring and musical mechanics, and a few 
unmusical members of the society of Friends. For, as far as I 
can learn, ninety-nine hundredths of all Physiologists, whose 
purpose it is to describe the voice ; of Masters of colleges and 
schools, who teach the art of reading ; of Elocutionists, whose 
materials of speech are furnished here ; of Naturalists, who 
through the wide range of zoology, might take an interest in 
comparative Intonation ; of the Votary of the fine arts, who 
might here see the seventh muse, now crowned by Science ; of 
the Universal Grammarian, who might learn that various modes 
of mere syllabic sound are no less naturally significant of thought 
and passion, than conventional words, are significant of the 
sense of a logical proposition ; and finally of the Philosopher 
of the mind, who might perceive some important and curious 
relations of language to passion and thought : Of these I 
repeat it, there are ninety-nine hundredths, who so far from 
having had directly a preparatory hand in this work, do, not, 
though it has been before them more than a quarter of a cen- 
tury, even yet, as to its systematic and practical application, 
know what it means. 

According to this popular idea of mass-thinking co-equality,, 
and co-laboration, our book stands in a dilemma. For on the 
one side, those who are eminently qualified to discover its 
meaning, have found none. Co-laboration therefore could have 



XXVI PREFACE. 

had no hand in it ; and the world, on this ground, not being 
now prepared for it, certainly never can be. On the other side, 
if the principle of co-laboration is not always true, this work 
may be founded in nature, and may be a contribution to the 
expressive and the beautiful in speech ; even though the 
Learned world was neither prepared for its reception, or even 
able to understand it when it came. But time who settles so 
many differences, must determine whether the co-laborative 
rule is sometimes false, or the ' Philosophy of the Human voice,' 
no better than a dream. All I have to say to the Votary of 
analytic science and taste, is 3 'Strike, but' read me; for I 
cannot help thinking 3 if you do read without prejudice, though 
you cannot take back the contemptuous blow, you will not 
strike again. 

It has been more than once said to me personally, and 
stated in print, that the ' Philosophy of the Human voice ' has 
exhausted its subject. It is to be regretted, with regard to the 
past and future in Science, to which we should always look 
with thankfulness and hope, that it has ever been thought so ; 
for if I perceive the future in this work 3 it has but just begun 
its subject, on a new and lasting foundation. And above all, 
it should be regretted 3 if the calculation, that nothing more can 
be made out of it, should be even the least reason for over- 
looking it. On the contrary, I cannot here withhold the pre- 
diction, that when taken up as a subject of further inquiry, and 
as a part of education, its intelligent Professors will extend 
and exalt it to a degree, I cannot now anticipate or compre- 
hend. I would willingly have assisted earlier laborers at our 
work, by vocal proof and illustration ; but my time is fast going 
by, and when they do go into the field, I cannot be there. 

The history of one of the fine arts, recently revived in 
England, has often in my mind, been associated with our pre- 
sent subject ; and as I have followed in reading, the progress 
of that art, from the time it first began to gather-in its facts, 
and frame its principles, up to its present mature and esthe- 
tic condition 3 I feign at least, a plea for noticing it here. 

I remember, my earliest curiosity for Gothic architecture 
Was excited by Scott's poems ; and on going to Scotland, in 



PREFACE. XXV11 

the year eighteen hundred and nine, the first of its proper 
structures I saw, was the Cathedral of Glasgow. It was then 
all eye-sight and novelty with me 3 not taste; yet perhaps, 
as a first unconscious step towards it, I departed with an unsat- 
isfied desire, for that knowledge of the nomenclature of its sys- 
tem and detail, which would have given materials to my memory, 
with some order and co-relation to my thoughts. I did ask the 
Old Dame who conducted me, many questions 3 but I had 
learned more from the Minstrel and Mammon, than she ever 
knew. Medical studies and other inquiries occupied me a year 
in Edinburgh. During a subsequent residence in London, I 
procured the small volume of essays by Wharton and others ; 
and Milner's treatise, together with his history of Winchester. 
By means of their chronicle of styles and changes in the art 3 
by their explanation of terms, or an incidental use of them 3 
and by the light of taste, just beginning to show-out in the 
pages of Milner 3 I was enabled, after visiting churches, to com- 
pile for my own private instruction, and as my own remem- 
brancer, something like an elementary compend : including a 
description of the structure of the cathedral ; the character 
and successions of its various styles ; an explanation of the 
terms of the art, as far as they had then been assigned ; and 
an account of the division, distribution and purposes of the 
Monastery. This little manuscript is dated in eighteen hun- 
dred and eleven, and however trifling, is among the earliest, as 
far as I can learn, in that systematic manner of treating the 
subject. There was then neither name nor fame in the art ; 
and the interest in it, was confined to as few perhaps, as those 
now interested in the analysis of speech. 

On revisiting England in eighteen hundred and forty-five, 
Gothic Architecture had become so popular, that the amateur 
and compiler had begun to rival the professional artist. Every 
gentleman was required to have a smattering at least, of its 
terms ; and many a rail-car passenger was ready to tell you of 
Norman, Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular styles. 
My sympathy with an enthusiast, at the Winchester Station, 
made quite friends of us, as we together traced the Cathedral 
forms and chronology 3 from Walkelyn's Norman ' arches broad 



XXV111 PREFACE. 

and round,' to the grand and graceful unity of Wykeham ; 
which seems yet to say to the art 3 Thus far shouldst thou go 
and no farther, and here should thy pure and finished style be 
staid. 

Perhaps an Englishman might say; this sudden intimacy, 
' without knowing who people are,' even though the intimacy 
sprung from congenial knowledge in an elegant art 3 was 
' very improper indeed.' But we soon parted, and forever; 
yet I believe, neither has since suffered any inconvenience from 
our sociability, while I very agreeably received much satis- 
factory information. 

Regarding then the restoration of Gothic architecture 3 may 
we ask, if the time will ever come, when the art of analytic 
speech, now the humble topic of a small fraternity, may so far 
obtain a hearing from the world, that some influential patrons 
will, as happened with that once o'er-shadowed art, draw ours 
too from obscurity ? Will the time ever come, when our School 
of Nature and Inquiry may say, and it shall be understood, 
that Mrs. Siddons derived her great dignity in Tragedy, from a 
well directed use of the Diatonic Melody, more than from any 
other means of intonation ; and that Barry, in characters of 
tenderness, owed his superiority over Garrick, to his delicate 
execution, and appropriate use of the Semitonic Wave ? Will 
it come, when on the authority of our principles, it will be 
believed if I say, that the later Booth, although rejected or 
undervalued, perhaps through some business calculation, by 
London Managers, yet apart from the ranting scenes of the 
poet, had in his better days, with least of the vocal vices of the 
stage, and hardly an affectation, one of the most elegant and 
appropriate intonations I have ever heard ? And finally, will 
not the time come, when in some future system of speech, 
raised upon the foundation here laid in Observation 3 principles 
may take the place of authority ; and the name of Master being 
no more bandied and kept up by contentious opinion, may be 
superseded by acknowledged precept, and then be forgotten ? 



Philadelphia, January 1, 1855, 



PREFACE 



THIRD EDITION. 



The * Philosophy of the Human Voice' was first published, 
nearly eighteen years ago ; and as the lapse of time has afforded 
ample opportunity for determining, how far its descriptions ac- 
cord with the phenomena of Nature, it may not be uninteresting 
to the reflective student of elocution, to have a short account of 
its reception, and of its progress within this period. 

Two editions have been published ; one of five hundred copies, 
in January, eighteen hundred and twenty-seven ; the other, of 
twelve hundred and fifty copies, in June, eighteen hundred and 
thirty-three. And although the work has been out of print for 
six years, the present edition is not perhaps essential to its pre- 
servation ; there being already abroad, print enough to furnish 
a revival-copy, when the humor of those who hold the great 
seals of patronage, may choose to give it a place in their ency- 
clopedia of knowledge, and their schools of practical instruction. 
It is rather at the call, and for the sake of those few friendly 
Samaritans, who are disposed to take charge of it, while the 
Priest and the Levite of learning pass along on the other side, 
that I have with some inconvenience at this time, undertaken 
to republish it. 

The amount of good-will thus far extended to the work, may 
scarcely deserve the name of patronage ; but it is rather more 
than was expected, and will perhaps be sufficient to keep it from 



XXX PKEFACE. 

oblivion. Upwards of twenty individuals with various qualifica- 
tions, have been occupied in teaching its principles ; the greater 
part of whom have lived in the Northern section of the United 
States ; while South and West of the Susquehanna, it is little 
known. All the individuals alluded to, have respectively taught 
the work, with a full, or a limited understanding of it, and a 
varied ability to apply it in practice. Some have been resident 
and some traveling teachers ; the latter giving lectures, or tem- 
porary school-instruction, in towns and villages. It may well 
be imagined, that teaching a system uninviting at least, if not 
repulsive, from its novelty, would be but an unprofitable labor ; 
and such appears to have been the case, with those who have 
thus far been occupied in its promulgation. 

As this work professes to set forth the universal principles of 
speech, the subject at least, is not beneath the notice of the 
philologist of any age or nation. But as regards its foreign 
relationships, the ' Philosophy of the Human Voice' has been 
obliged to come under that old interrogative condemnation 3 
' Who reads an American book V 

To the scientific, in two or three parts of Europe, it is known 
by an occasional whisper, that such a book exists. Two indivi- 
duals, Dr. Barber, and the Reverend Samuel Wood, have been 
the first to speak aloud of it in England ; but with what success, 
I am not informed. It remains all-dusty, on the shelves of 
many of the Public libraries of Europe ; and is in the possession 
of some of those who give fashion to the science of the times. 
Yet it has never received a strictly investigating notice ; no 
examination by a qualified and authoritative ear, which might 
decide, whether what is here offered as the truth of Nature, is 
or is not, that very truth. And, as in preparing the work for 
others, the author was, by circumstances, the solitary pupil of 
his own instruction j so with hope-deferred, to correct its faults 
by the aid of competent counsel, he has been obliged, in the 
enlargement, and variations of each successive edition, to be 
his own contributor ; and to assume the office of an insufficient, 
and perhaps partial critic over himself. 

The greater number of the pupils and friends of this system, 



PREFACE. XXXI 

have been of that class, which the Rank and Fashion of Science 
calls the humble and Unknown ; Persons of no account ; though 
long noted, for sometimes doing new and most excellent things, 
and for very frequently, first helping them along. 

Of the infinitude of demagogues in our country, from the 
Candidate for Presidency, down to him who works the plot of 
Nomination, and who all, in one debasing brotherhood but with 
a varied personality, are at the same time, corrupting their 
voices, their intellect, their moral principles, and their republi- 
can government j of all these, I have not heard of one, who has 
had time or repose enough to inquire, even whether this work 
might not, if so ill-used alas ! imbue his Speeches with a more 
impressive sophistry, and graceful vocal-cunning, to allure, to 
blind, and to mislead the people. 

Of the many Actors whom I have known or heard of, none 
seem to have the least idea of such a thing as a philosophy of 
the voice ; or that the department of speech which this book 
particularly regards, requires the improving aid of science ; or 
indeed, that success in their art can be effected by anything else 
than some mysterious 'power of genius.' One individual, but 
not till he had left the Stage, has formed an association in 
Boston, for teaching the principles of this philosophy. 

Here and there, a young Lawyer, with that generality of 
mental temperament and inkling of taste, which in this country 
at least, is rather a drawback to advancement in his Profession, 
has looked into this subject, tried a few lessons, and then 
abandoned his purpose. 

The Clergy were among the first to regard the system with 
favor ; and many had industry enough to study it. 

I have known one physician only, who comprehended the de- 
sign, and studied the details of this work ; but he is deceased. 
Why it has found no favor with the Medical Faculty, at least 
as a subject of physiology, is perhaps to be solved by these 
facts : it is strictly observative ; it rejects all notions, and 
quarrelsome theories ; has not yet come into popular use ; and 
is the contribution, such as it is, of a physician. 

Musicians and singers, together with certain amateurs and 



XXX11 PREFACE. 

critics, who constantly hover about them, have given no atten- 
tion to this subject. Of a large number of these, I have found 
none able to appreciate our history, or to understand how speech 
and music might be but different branches of the same art. To 
this I may add the remarkable circumstance, that while musi- 
cians and singers j who have through habitual practice if not by 
instinctive ear, the most precise discrimination of tunable 
sounds $ are unable to recognize the peculiar music of speech, 
and even to comprehend the meaning of this workj there is a 
class, the Society of Friends, who, by the strictest discipline, 
shun all the graces of Art ; who never cultivate the ear either 
by instrument or voice, but fantastically corrupt it in their 
public discourse ; who yet, when addressed by the system, have 
formed a large proportion of its pupils, and have comprehended 
its design, though they may not have always been able, vocally 
to execute its rules. 

A few teachers of Psalmody appear to have read the work ; 
and as far as they have found its discriminations and terms 
applicable to their purpose, have adopted them in their Man- 
uals of instruction. 

Of readers who hold the scientific influence whatever that 
may be, of this country, very few have regarded it either with 
curiosity or favor. But what makes their case remarkable is, 
that in their own want of understanding, they always imagine 
the deficiency to be on the side of the Author. One says, it is 
a sealed book ; another, that it might as well have been written 
in Hebrew. An eminent leader of opinion, on this side of the 
water, says, it is not worth reviewing : while on the other side, 
one of the very highest rank, in British periodical criticism, 
declares, in the frank confession of an ineffable superiority, 
that ' it quite surpasses his comprehension.' One, not contented 
with his own single incompetence, takes the Author into his 
company, by sayings he does not understand it himself: while 
to a high-placed medical Professor, the work was altogether so 
unintelligible, that he recommended one of his friends to read 
it, as a fine example of the incoherent language of insanity. 

These remarks have a place here, not from their importance 



PREFACE. XXX111 

either to the author or his subject ; but as minor chronicles, 
collateral to the early history of the Philosophy of Speech. 
And I am quite willing to believe, that whether they came 
from ignorance or from spleen, they were the offspring of a 
thoughtless humor, by this time, changed to something else 
equally foolish or bad. These however may have been words 
of a moment, and then forgotten. Two, and only two, as far 
as known, have employed time, reflection, argument, public lec- 
turing and printing, in dispute of the claims of this work. 

Under the article, Philology, in the ' Encyclopedia Ameri- 
cana,' the President of the American Philosophical Society, 
after stating, as well as he could comprehend it, the design of 
the 'Philosophy of the Human Voice,' gives, what he thinks, 
learned and sufficient reasons for determining, not only that it 
has not, according to its purpose, developed and measured the 
expressive movements of speech ; but that it never can be done. 
Not to contend here with a gentleman, who, at the head of all 
the philosophers, denies, what I perhaps vainly, imagine to have 
been accomplished 3 I must hand him over to the unknown 
science and industry of future ages, to argue the case of its 
future impossibility ; only remarking here, that as it has been 
done already, in the work, now in the distinguished President's 
hands, there can be nothing either impossible or miraculous in 
the idea of its being done again. 

The other formal decision against the means and end of this 
work, comes, as I am told, from one of the thousand lecturers 
of the day, at Boston, whose name I cannot now call to mind. 
All I have to say of his attempt at refutation, though I have 
never seen the article, is, that in addition to the direct demon- 
stration of the truth of the analysis, which the ear has given to 
some few inquirers, he has unexpectedly furnished us with that 
indirect proof, called by logicians, the argumentum ducens in 
absurdum : meaning in plain English 3 the proposition must be 
true, when we cannot without absurdity, prove it to be false. 

I have a few words to add, on the subject of adapting the 
principles of this work to the purposes of practical instruction. 
Seven or eight grammars or text-books of elocution, for the use 



XXXIV . PREFACE. 

of schools, have already been formed out of a different amount 
of its materials, and set forth with various degrees of ability. 
Now, as the object is to render a grammar popular, it has been 
the aim of the compilers to simplify the system, and to furnish 
a cheap book ; thus accommodating it as they suppose, to the 
mental, and other necessities of the learner. This attempt, 
either by its very purpose, or by the manner of its execution, 
has perhaps had the effect to retard the progress of our new 
system of the voice. For, the superficial character of these 
books, and the mingling of parts of the old method with parts 
of the new, together with an attempt to give definition and 
order to these scattered materials, has left the inquirer unsatis- 
fied, if indeed, it has not brought his mind to confusion. One 
of the difficulties of introducing new subjects of education is, that 
you give the scholar, as he thinks, too much to do. But by 
the condition of all such cases, he must learn the whole, or he 
learns comparatively nothing. The method of teaching by 
epitome, and by sketch, if not always imperfect or useless, is 
barely allowable when a general understanding of the subject 
prevails, when hints go a great way, and expositors are found 
every where. I published this work, under the idea, that it 
might for a time, be consigned to oblivion : hoping however, 
that if afterwards, a single worm-eaten copy should be reco- 
vered, with nature only for its illustration, a knowledge of its 
analysis and purpose might be revived, without the living assist- 
ance of the author. I wrote it too, with all the brevity its 
strangeness would allow ; and as well as I can judge, with suffi- 
cient fulness, to make it intelligible to earnest and competent 
inquirers. Within these limits of composition, it was my design 
so to describe the system and uses of the voice, that they might 
be audibly illustrated for the benefit of the scholar ; not to 
furnish materials, to be broken up, curtailed, jumbled into a 
text-book, and printed for the pecuniary benefit of a master. 
The purpose indeed, seemed to need an apology ; and it is gen- 
erally offered, under the consideration of the reduced cost of 
an abridgement, compared with that of a larger volume. But 
when was cheap knowledge, more than cheap work, ever worth 



PREFACE. XXXV 

even half of what was given for it ? And generally speaking, 
if a succession of cheap, puny, and insufficient books, in most 
branches of education, did not everlastingly invite and delude 
the public, there would be purchasers enough, of what are now 
more expensive, and more useful works, to reduce them to a 
reasonable cost. An unfortunate result of these supposed 
short-hand assistants to ignorance, taking the place of full and 
clear description, is that each compiler has a special interest in 
his own little book, to the exclusion of others of the same kind. 
And this produces, as I have witnessed, jealousies, and not a 
little back-biting criticism, among these several competitors for 
popular favor. Thus, one is said to have made an odd assem- 
blage of the old indefinite system, with the new. One is 
thought to have given too little musical explanation ; another 
too much. This one's arrangement is confused ; another's is 
no better ; and a third has no arrangement at all. One, in a 
desire to be popular, forgets to be descriptive. One is charged 
with slily taking his materials, without acknowledgment ; 
another, with boldly palming them off as his own. While 
another, supposing himself to have become original, by a long 
habit of copying, receives, or perhaps feigns, and publishes 
compliments to himself, on his philosophical analysis, and on 
his new system of elocution. 

This is what these discordant Elocutionists, while drawing 
from a common source, many with and some without acknow- 
ledgment, so critically say of each other ; he who makes the 
last book, being most obnoxious to the rest, by complaining 
before their face, of the want of a right kind of manual, which 
he invidiously undertakes to supply. 

One of the purposes of this work is to showj by refuting an 
almost universal belief to the contrary ^ that elocution can be 
scientifically taught ; but the manner of explanation and 
arrangement in too many of these garbled school-book compila- 
tions, has gone far towards satisfying the objectors that it 
cannot. 

I make these remarks, with a disposition to advance an art, 
in which the persons here referred to, have joined the distract- 



XXXVI PREFACE. 

ing and questionable interest of publishing, with the occupation 
of illustrative teaching. If the time had arrived, for the friends 
or opponents of the system to become, by the habit of acute 
and comprehensive investigation, authoritative and responsible 
critics, I would sit down with them, and together expunge all 
the errors of the i Philosophy of the Human Voice ; ' and see, 
with satisfaction, all its omissions supplied. I never myself 
looked for, nor expected, nor have I received, the least pecuni- 
ary benefit from this work : and it ought to be regretted, if 
those who have that sort of gain in view, should, by their haste, 
or insufliciency, or their differences among one another, mar 
the purpose and progress of that art, in which, as a subject of 
knowledge and taste, all of us should be equally interested. 



Philadelphia, December 2, 1844. 



PREFACE 



SECOND EDITION. 






More than six years ago, I offered the manuscript of the 
following work, to the then principal bookseller of this city. 
Engagements which promised to be more lucrative obliged him 
to decline the publication. The result has shown, that with his 
instrumentalities of trade he might have made a profitable sale 
of it 3 as, with my motives in authorship, I would have freely 
given the whole right of the edition to him. I made elsewhere, 
no second offer of the work ; for as it had been rejected by the 
so-called foremost Publishing-Patron of American writers, I 
deprecated the influence of his example against it. Thus the 
first step of my authorship was unfortunate ; and as in these 
days of anxious benevolence, a very few misfortunes are sure 
to bring down contempt 3 to save further ill luck, I printed it 
myself; and subsequently found an individual not unwilling to 
interest himself in distributing it. 

I remember, one of the Patron's objections, in the prophecy 
of Trade, to publishing the ' Philosophy of the Human Voice' 
was 3 its not being suited to this country.' It is true, the higher 
views of science and taste, and all individual independence of 
observation and thought 3 in a country, where, before all others, 
nothing is adopted, or is successful, but through the associated 
agency of numbers 3 are considered as rebellion against the 



Kingly-spirit of Popularity, and the Majorative-Despotism of 
its opinion. Yet upon this very conviction I offered the work 
to the public ; hoping, by the diffusion of its principles, to bring 
it into that old and only path of truth, which begins with a few 
and ends with the many ; and thus, in due season, to suit the 
country to it. 

With here and there an exception, the scoffers at this work 
have been those eternal enemies to all disturbing originality, 
the Placemen of Learning. Supposing however that, through 
the influence of knowledge made light and popular and cheap, 
the Arts are not so far downward, as to create despair of 
successful efforts by a new one, before their entire decay 
and future revival ; I would say to many of those who hold 
the places and draw the profits of science, that if they will but 
continue to sheathe their opposition in their feigned contempt, 
the first humble advocates of this work may, by a gradual rise 
to those places and profits, see their own enlarged designs of 
instruction, in the course of half a century, completed. 

There are now several teachers of the system throughout the 
United States. Dr. Barber, an English physician who had de- 
voted himself to the study of elocution, and who came to Phila- 
delphia about the period of its publication 3 was the first to adopt 
its principles, and to defend them against the double influence 
of doubt and sneer, by an explanatory and illustrative course 
of lectures. Yale College, at New Haven, was early favorable 
to the system. But the University of Cambridge, by appoint- 
ing Dr. Barber to its department of Elocution, was the first 
chartered institution of science in this country that gave an 
influential and responsible approbation of the work. 

As this work furnishes general principles for an Art, hereto- 
fore directed by individual instinct or caprice^ all who would 
teach that art by principles founded in nature, must sooner or 
later adopt it. Will the influential instructors of Philadelphia 
be the last ? 

The objections first made to the ' Philosophy of the Human 
Voice,' were against its utility ; now the cry among the Learned 
is i it is too difficult. Too difficult ! Why, all new things are 



difficult ; and if the scholastic pretender knows not this, let 
the annals of the trades instruct him. Just one century has 
elapsed since that common material of furniture, Mahogany, 
was first known in England. It is recorded that Dr. Gibbons, 
an eminent physician of that period, had a brother, a West- 
India captain, who took over to London some planks of this 
wood, as ballast. The Doctor was then building a house ; and 
his brother thought they might be of service to him. But the 
carpenters finding the wood too hard for their tools, it was laid 
aside. Soon after, a candle-box being wanted in his family, 
Dr. Gibbons requested his cabinet-maker to use some of this 
plank which lay in his garden. The cabinet-maker also com- 
plained, that it ivas too hard. The Doctor told him 3 he must 
get stronger tools. When however by successful means, the 
box was made, the Doctor ordered a bureau of the same mate- 
rial ; the color and polish of which were so remarkable, that 
he invited all his friends to view it. Among them, was the 
Duchess of Buckingham, who being struck with its beauty, ob- 
tained some of the wood ; and a like piece of furniture was im- 
mediately made for Her Grace. Under this influence, the fame 
of mahogany was at once established ; its manufacture was then 
found to be in nowise difficult ; and its employment for both 
use and ornament has since become universal. 

The master-builders of science, literature, and eloquence, 
declared the ' Philosophy of the Human Voice,' to be too hard 
for their studious energies ; and threw it aside as useless. But 
a few humble Cabinet-makers of learning having somehow or 
other, got stronger tools, have already made the box ; are under 
way with the bureau ; and are only waiting for the authorita- 
tive influence of some leader of oratorical fashion, to produce a 
general belief in this simple truism 3 IF WE WISH TO READ 

WELL, WE MUST FIRST LEARN HOW. 
Philadelphia, June 26, 1833. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The analysis of the human voice contained in the following 
essay, was undertaken a few years ago, exclusively as a subject 
of physiological inquiry. Upon ascertaining some interesting 
facts, in the uses of speech, I was induced to pursue the investi- 
gation ; and subsequently to attempt a methodical description 
of the various vocal phenomena, with a view to bring the sub- 
ject within the limits of science, and thereby to assist the pur- 
poses of oratorical instruction. 

By every scheme of the cyclopedia, the subject of the voice 
is allotted to the physiologist ; yet upon its most important 
function, speech and its expression, he has strangely neglected 
his part, by borrowing the small substance of his knowledge 
from the fancies of rhetoricians, and the intermeddling autho- 
rity of grammarians. It is time at last, for physiology seriously 
to take up its task. 

In entering on this inquiry, I resolved to have no reference 
to former writers 3* until the habit of discriminating the facts 

* I here in this fifth edition submit to the reader, the first imprinting, and 
practical use of the idea of a Double Comma, as a symbol of Punctuation. The 
want of a point, for a significant pause between that of a comma and a semicolon, 
must have been felt by exact and thoughtful writers, in descriptive and expla- 
natory composition. For brevity, and easy rythmus in enumerating the points, 
it may, from the Greek <?h, twice, be called, Dicomma. The principal purposes 
for which I employ it are^ First; as prefatory to an illustrative instance; or a 
question, or the statement of a question ; or a condition; to indicate by the 
symbol, some notable sense, should the mind for the moment ask ^ what is to 
follow. Second ; for cases when the grammar is prone to run on, and perspi- 
cuity requires a special suspension 1 beyond a point of longer rest than that 
of the comma. Third ; for subdivided short or long periodic sentences, with or 

4 



xlii INTRODUCTION. 

of the voice should be so far confirmed, as to obviate the danger 
of adopting unquestioned errors, which the strongest effort of 
independence often finds it so difficult to avoid. Even a faint 
recollection of school instruction was not without its forbidding 
interference with my first attempt to discover, by the ear alone, 
the hidden processes of speech. 

After obtaining an outline of the work of Nature in the voice, 
sufficient to enable me to avail myself of the useful truth of 
other observers, and to guard against their mistakes, I con- 
sulted all accessible treatises on the subject, particularly the 
European compilations of the day, the authors of which have 
opportunities for learned research, not enjoyed in this country. 
Finding, on a fair comparison, that the following description 
of the voice represents its phenomena more extensively and 
definitely than any received system, I was induced to give it 
the durable form of Print. Many errors may be found in it ; 
but if the general history, and the analytic development be not 
drawn from nature, and do not prompt others to carry the 
inquiry further, and into practical detail, I shall much regret 
the time wasted in the publication. 

It becomes me however, to remark, that as the greater part 

without other pointsj in order to check the haste of grammatical parts j if dis- 
posed to run together; and thus by drawing attention to the individuality of 
members, to relieve the whole from intricacy. Fourth ; to bound parenthetic 
members, and in taking the place of the Dash^ which is always a formless 
linear blemish on the compact neatness of prints to carry over the sense and 
grammar, through the space between the pauses. Fifth ; as a direction to a 
following proposition ; and showings there are punctuative means for supplying 
the place of the demonstrative that, when this pronoun precedes the word, there, 
or this, or they, or itself repeated, or any other word of striking similarity of 
sound, which might offend the ear. Sixth ; to separate a succession of mem- 
bers j, as objects of a previous action 3 or as the agents of a prospective effect 3 
which may mentally indicate a less pause than a semicolon, and greater than a 
comma between them. 

All these cases and perhaps more, are exemplified throughout this volume. 
But punctuation partakes in a degree, of the whims of the human mind ; and 
on this subject readers and writers will in many particulars, have each a whim 
of his own. Should however, this new point be considered worthy of adoption, 
others may give more precise rules for its application. 



INTRODUCTION. xliii 

of this work has not been made-up from the quoted, or contro- 
verted, or accommodated opinions of authors, I shall totally 
disregard any decision upon its merits, that is not the result of 
a scrutinizing comparison of its descriptions, with the phenomena 
of nature herself. 

The art of speaking-well, has in most civilized countries, 
been a cherished mark of distinction between the elevated and 
the humble conditions of life ; and has been immediately con- 
nected with some of the greater purposes of justice, patriotism, 
instruction, and taste. It may therefore appear extraordinary, 
that the world, with all its works of philosophy, should have 
been satisfied with an instinctive exercise of the art, and with 
occasional examples of its supposed perfection $ without an en- 
deavor to found an analytic system of instruction, productive 
of multiplied instances of success. Due reflection however, 
will convince us, that even this extended purpose of the art of 
speaking has been one cause of the neglect. It has been a 
popular art ; and works for present popularity are too often 
the common-place product of a common-place ambition. The 
renowned of the bar, the senate, the pulpit, and the stage, 
applauded into self-confidence by the undiscerning multitude 
that surrounds them, cannot acknowledge the necessity of im- 
provement ; for the rewards that await the art of gratifying the 
general ear, are in no less a degree encouraging to the faults 
of the voice, than the approving judgment of the million is sub- 
versive of the rigid discipline of the mind. 

Physiologists have described and classed the organic positions 
that produce the alphabetic elements. This has been done by 
the rule, and with the success of philosophy. On other points 
their attempts have not been so satisfactory. In investigating 
the subject of Intonation, that is, the rise and fall of the voice, 
or what is called its Pitch j they have not designated by some 
known or invented scale, the forms and degrees of such move- 
ments ; and thus furnished the required and definite detail in 
this department of speech. They have rather given their 
attention to the following inquiries : Whether the organs of 
the voice partake of the nature of a wind, or stringed instru- 



Xliv INTRODUCTION. 

mentj how the falsette is made 3 and whether acuteness and 
gravity are formed by variations in the aperture of the glottis, 
or in the tension of its chords. In their experiments, they 
removed the organs from men and other animals, and produced 
something like a living voice, by artificially blowing through 
them. They carefully inspected the cartilages and muscles of 
the larynx, to discover thereby the immediate cause of into- 
nation, while they altogether overlooked the audible forms and 
degrees of that intonation. In short, they tried to see sound, 
and to touch it with the dissecting-knife ; and all this, without 
reaching any positive conclusion, or describing more of the 
audible effect of the anatomical structure, than was known two 
thousand years ago. 

The Greek and Roman rhetoricians,, and writers on music, 
recorded their knowledge of the functions of the voice. They 
distinguished its different Qualities, by the terms 3 hard, smooth, 
sharp, clear, hoarse, full, slender, flowing, flexible, shrill, and 
austere. They knew the Time of the voice, and had a view to 
what they called its Quantity in pronunciation. They gave to 
Force or Stress, under its form of accent and emphasis, appro- 
priate places in speech. They perceived the existence of 
Pitch, or variation of high and low in sound ; and were the 
first to make an exact and beautiful analysis on this subject. 
They discovered two forms of transition between high and low ; 
one that ascends and descends, by a continuous movement or 
slide : the other, by an interrupted movement or skip from 
place to place, in ascent and descent. They also ascertained 
that the former is employed in Speech ; the latter, on musical 
instruments. Though, from carrying the inquiry no further, 
they supposed, but erroneously as we shall learn hereafter, 
that one was solely appropriated to speech ; the other solely 
to instruments. 

The ancients however, show no acquaintance with the sub- 
divisions, definite degrees, and particular applications, of those 
two general forms of pitch 3 for the discriminative purposes of 
oratorical use : and if we may judge, from an attempt by Di- 
onysius of Halicarnassus to point out the difference between 



INTRODUCTION. xlv 

singing and speech, and from some other descriptions, totally 
irreconcilable with the proprieties of modern -j and as we shall 
see hereafter, of natural and ordained intonation 3 we must 
believe that on this point, they made but a limited analysis ; 
that the uses of pitch, or of the 'tones' of the voice, as they 
are called, were conducted altogether by imitation ; and that 
the means of instruction were not reduced to any precise or 
available directions of art. 

TSo one can read that discourse on the management of the 
voice, in Quinctilian's elaborate chapter on Action, without 
allowing to the ancients a power of perceiving many of the 
beauties and blemishes of speech. Yet among the numerous 
indications of their practical familiarity with the art of public 
speakings we find no clear description of its constituents, nor 
any definite instruction. The abundant detail throughout his 
work more than once suggests to the Author, an apology for 
its minuteness ; and therefore precludes the supposition that 
he designedly overlooked any well known means, by which the 
various uses of the voice might be represented with available 
precision. 

It is believed, the ancient rhetoricians designated the pitch 
of vocal sounds by the term, Accent. They made three kinds 
of accents j the acute, the grave, and the circumflex ; signifying, 
severally, the rise, the fall, and a union of these into a turn of 
the voice. The existence in Greek manuscripts, of certain 
accentual marks, representing these movements, which however 
were not applied till about the seventh century, afforded the 
only data, for modern inquiry into the forms of Greek intona- 
tion ; and created a learned dispute j that was continued, with- 
out one satisfactory result, from the time of the Younger 
Vossius, to the recent days of Foster, and Gaily. 

If Greek Scholars had employed other means than wasteful 
wrangling with each other, for ascertaining the purpose of 
accentual marks, it would long ago have been determined, 
whether they direct to any practical knowledge of Greek utter- 
ance, or are only a subject for useless contention. Had the 
tongue and the ear, the rightful Masters in this school, been 



xlvi INTRODUCTION. 

consulted, these symbols would at once have been regarded as 
vague and meagre representations of the rich and measurable 
variety of the voice. 

The disputants found that degree of obscurity in the ancient 
records on accent, which encourages the profitless labors, and 
alternate triumphs of party ; which subjects opinion to all the 
chicanery of sectarian argument ; and shuts out the conclusive 
inquiries of independent observation. In the distracting fashion 
of the old dialectic art, and of the modern use of it, they ' dis- 
coursed about truth until they forgot to discover it : ' and while 
they exhibit a distressing waste of time, and temper, by con- 
tinually seeking in the flickering indications of unfinished 
records, the light which would steadily have arisen on their 
observation, they hold out to the future historian of literature, 
a temptation towards the sarcastic inquiry 3 how far the writers 
on Greek and Roman accent were endowed with the powers of 
hearing and pronunciation. 

Since the decline, or the limitation of classic authority, mod^ 
ern inquirers, by listening to the sounds of their own language, 
have at last undertaken to discover other elemental functions 
of the voice, than those represented by accentual marks. 

The works of Steele, Sheridan, and Walker, have made large 
contributions to the long neglected, and still craving condition 
of our tongue. 

Mr. Joshua Steele published, at London, in the year seven- 
teen hundred and seventy-five, ' An essay towards establishing 
the melody and measure of speech, to be expressed and per- 
petuated, by peculiar symbols.' The design of this essay was 
suggested by some remarks on the subject of accent and quan- 
tity, by Lord Monboddo, in his ' Origin and progress of 
language : ' and was executed, in part, under the form of an 
argumentative correspondence between this Author and Mr. 
Steele. 

Future times may smile at some of the effects of classical 
pursuits, if ever told 3 a free inquirer had considerable diffi- 
culty, in convincing an accomplished scholar, at the end of the 
eighteenth century, that the English language has those attri- 



INTRODUCTION. xlvii 

butes of Accent and Quantity, supposed to belong exclusively 
to the Latin and the Greek : for this was the subject of contro- 
versy. Mr. Steele has therefore given a notation of the time 
of the voice ; and shown that the same continuous slide 
employed on syllables of the Greek language, is necessarily 
heard on those of his own. But if he designed to inquire into 
the forms and varieties of that slide, he was unsuccessful. For 
with an exception of his indefinite representations of some new 
forms of the circumflex accent, he made no advances beyond 
the few but fundamental facts of the ancients : and only in one 
or two instances obscurely perceived, what they entirely 
overlooked j the natural connection between different states of 
the mind, and their appropriate vocal signs. In attempting to 
delineate the melody of speech, he adopted those leading fic- 
tions and vague ideas of the Greek elocution^ that the vocal 
slides are somehow made through enharmonic intervals ; and 
that three tones and a half is the measure of the accentual rise 
and fall in ordinary discourse. The influence of these delu- 
sions, together with his belief in some fancied analogies between 
certain parts of the system of music, and the melody of speech, 
rendered his short account of intonation meagre, confused, and 
erroneous. He had two different objects in view. The first, 
to prove to his opponent, that the accentual Slide, and Quan- 
tity, belong essentially to English speech. This he briefly 
did : but without considering their broad and important appli- 
cation, and their effects. The second, and principal, was to 
describe an original system of Rythmic Notation, by which the 
subject of Quantity, of stressful emphasis, and of pause may be 
represented to a pupil ; and the habit of attention fixed on 
these important points in the art of reading. 

Mr. Steele shows by his work, that he possessed nicety of 
ear, a knowledge of the science and practice of music, together 
with an originality and independence of mind, created by 
observation and reflection ; powers sufficient when not restrained 
or perverted, to have developed the whole philosophy of speech. 

Had he not begun and continued his investigation through 
the distracting means of controversy ; had not his attention 



xlviii INTRODUCTION. 

been drawn into the desultory course of responsive argument ; 
nor his courtesy towards the opinions of others partially 
betrayed him to their authority ; had he not assumed as iden- 
tical, those facts of music and of speech, which his own closer 
observation would have proved to be different ; and above all, 
had he not looked back to a supposed science, in the elocution 
of the Greeks, and to the dark confusion of commentators upon 
them, but in self-superiority to this obstructive influence, kept 
his full-sufficient and undeviating ear on Nature, she would at 
last have led him up to light. 

Mr. Sheridan is well known by his discriminating investiga- 
tion of the Art of reading ; and though he improved both the 
detail and method of his subject, in the departments of pronun- 
ciation, emphasis, and pause, he made no analysis of intonation. 
A regretted omission ! The more so from the certainty, that 
if this topic had received his attention, his intelligence and 
industry would have shed much light of explanation upon it. 

Mr. Walker, who has written usefully and well on Rhetoric 
and Philology, devotes a portion of his work to the subject of 
the rise and fall of the voice, in its application to the emphatic 
syllables of a sentence : indeed, he reiterates his claims to 
originality on this subject. Mr. Walker may have been the 
first to apply the confused and conjectural system of ancient 
Accent to a modern language ; but he has scarcely gone beyond 
the limited analysis, furnished by that ancient system. The 
Greek writers on music had a discriminative knowledge of the 
rise, fall, and circumflex turn of speech. Aristoxenus the 
philosopher, a pupil of Aristotle, discovered, or first described, 
that peculiar rise and fall of sound by a continuous progression, 
which distinguishes the vocal slide, from the shipping transi- 
tion on musical instruments. 

Mr. Walker does triumphantly claim the discovery of the 
inverted circumflex accent, or the downward-and-upward con- 
tinued movement. Yet, if it is correctly inferred from the 
dates of publication, and from Mr. Walker's rather derisive 
allusion to Mr. Steele's essay, that the latter author preceded 
him 3 he might have found, in Mr. Steele's gravo-acute accent, 



INTRODUCTION. xlix 

proof of a previous knowledge of his newly -found function of 
the voice. 

Mr. "Walker was a celebrated elocutionist, and may have 
known well how to manage his intonation ; but in his attempt 
to delineate its forms, he is even less definite than Mr. Steele. 
His insinuation that speech and music, each being varied uses 
of the same tunable constituents, should not be illustrated by 
some analogous notation -> and his own erroneous diagrams of 
the progress of pitch, are instances of a want of reflection and 
of obtuseness of ear, quite reprehensible in one, who, without 
compulsion, should undertake to investigate the relationships 
of sound. 

I have thus endeavored to state the amount, and the sources, 
of what has been heretofore known of the functions of speech. 
In a general view, it appears : That the number, the kinds, 
and the organic causes of the Alphabetic Elements have long 
since been recorded, with accurate detail ; That Quantity or 
the Time of syllabic utterance, together with the subject of 
Pause, had been distinguished only by a few indefinite terms, 
until Mr. Steele, with discriminative perception, applied to 
speech some of the principles and symbols of musical notation ; 
That Accent or the means of distinguishing a syllable by stress 
or intensity of voice, has been definitely described in English 
orthoepy, both as to its places and degrees ; That this syllabic 
stress, though attentively regarded in the grammatical institute 
of the Greeks, is yet in their records, so confounded with some 
indistinct idea of the sliding rise, fall, and circumflex turn of 
the voice, that we are left altogether in doubt, as to their system- 
atic and separate use of these different functions ; That Empha- 
sis, when restricted to the purpose of making one or more 
words conspicuous, by force or intensity of voice, has long been 
a subject of rhetorical attention ; Mr. "Walker being the first 
among modern Elocutionists, who attempted, under the terms 
upward and downward slide, to connect any formal idea of 
Intonation with it : And finally, that the analysis of Intona- 
tion has hardly been extended beyond the recorded knowledge 
of the ancients. Greek and Roman writers tell us of the acute, 



1 INTRODUCTION. 

grave, and circumflex movements ; and these, with the newly 
described inverted-circumflex, have, at a recent date, by Mr. 
Steele and Mr. Walker, first been vaguely regarded, in English 
speech. 

These four general heads of intonation are truly drawn from 
nature ; yet, with the present indefinite meaning of their terms, 
they are useless for practical instruction, and no less imper- 
fectly designate the measurable modifications of speech, than 
the four cardinal terms of the compass describe all the points, 
distances, and contents of space. 

The discovery of the above mentioned distinctions in intona- 
tion, which must indeed form the outline of all nicer discrimina- 
tion, was the result of philosophical inquiry. A much more 
abundant, but not more precise nomenclature has been derived 
from criticism. The following phrases are extracted from a 
description of Mr. Garrick's manner of reading the Church- 
service, and have an especial reference to the Intonation of his 
voice : ' Even tenor of smooth regular delivery,' ' Fervent 
tone,' i Sincerity of devotional expression,' ' Repentant tone,' 
'Reverential tone,' 'Evenness of voice,' ' Tone of solemn dig- 
nity,' ' Of supplication,' ' Of sorrow, and contrition.' 

Those who know what constitutes accuracy of language, must 
confess that these, and similar attempts to name the means of 
vocal expression, have no more claim to the title of intelligible 
description, than belongs to the rambling signification of vulgar 
nomenclature. We seem not to be aware, that no describable 
perceptions are associated with such common phrases of criti- 
cism, until required to illustrate them by some definite dis- 
crimination of vocal sounds. ' Grandeur of feeling,' says a 
writer, in laying down the rules of elocution, ' should be 
expressed with pomp and magnificence of tone ; ' as if the 
words, pomp and magnificence were specifications of perceptible 
4 tones j' and thus explanatory and definite terms for some 
well-known forms and uses of the voice. But as these words 
describe no audible function, they can in this case denote inde- 
finitely, only a feeling or state of mind ; and are therefore, 
convertible with the term, grandeur of feeling, which denotes 



INTRODUCTION. li 

indefinitely only a state of mind. We may therefore presume, 
from their having no reference to assignable conditions of the 
voice j if the writer had been, conversely asked, how ' pomp 
and magnificence of feeling ' should be expressed, he would, 
with no more meaning, have answered 3 by 'grandeur of tone.' 
Such rules for the expression of speech, though abounding in 
our systems of elocution, are resolvable, only into words with 
no explanatory meaning. Nor can any weight of authority 
give them the power of description ; since the terms * sorrowful 
expression,' and ' tone of solemn dignity,' in the precepts of an 
accomplished Elocutionist, have no more logical precision as to 
the modes, forms, degrees, and varieties of pitch, time, and 
force of voice, than those of ' fine-turned cadence,' and * chaste 
modulation,' in the idle criticism of a daily gazette. 

All arts and sciences appear under two different conditions. 
They may be seen through the medium of terms of vague signi- 
fication, suited to the limited knowledge and feeble senses of 
the ignorant, in every caste of society. Those who view them 
under this condition, in vainly pretending to discriminate, 
express nothing but their thoughtless approbation. In the 
other light, they are shown in definite delineation, by a lan- 
guage of unchangeable meanings and independently of the per- 
versions, which slender ability, natural temper, or momentary 
humor may create. He who thus surveys an art, will in 
expressing his approbation, always reflect and discriminate. 

Some branches of the art of speaking, are even at this late 
period, scarcely removed from the first of these conditions. 
This however, will not seem strange, when we for a moment 
consider its cause. There is no growth of intellect from 
nothing j no 'equivocal generation' in knowledge. It always 
springs from the obvious seeds of itself; and these are first 
planted in the mind, by definite perceptions and explanatory 
terms. But the elementary forms of Intonation, are an essen- 
tial constituent of expressive speech ; and though constantly 
heard, have never been named : the studious inquirer has there- 
fore wanted a language for that meaning of the voice, which ho 
has always felt. The fulness of nomenclature in an art is 



v 



Hi INTRODUCTION. 

directly proportional to the degree of its improvement ; and 
the accuracy of its terms ensures the precision of its systematic 
rules. The few and indeterminate designations of the modes 
of the voice in Reading, compared with the number and accu- 
racy of the terms in Music, imply the different manner in which 
each has been cultivated. The inquirers into the subject of 
speech, have unproductively given up their judgments to 
authority, and their pens to quotation. The musician has 
devoted his ear to observation and experiment, and in their 
path has persisted onward to success. The words, quick, slow, 
long, short, loud, soft, rise, fall, and turn, indefinite as they 
are, include nearly all the discriminative terms of Elocution. 
How far they fall short of an enumeration of every precise and 
elegant use of the voice, and how fairly the cause of the vague 
and limited condition of our knowledge is here represented, 
shall be determined on a retrospective review by an age to 
come, when the ear will have made deliberate examination. 

A conviction of the imperfect state of our knowledge in cer- 
tain branches of the Art of Speaking, first suggested the design 
of the ensuing investigation ; while a hope that others might 
assist in the completion of a desirable measurement and method 
of the voice, induced me to set the present publication before 
them. If it should not furnish a plan for the future establish- 
ment of the principles of Intonation, Time, and Force 5 I must 
still continue to believe, without controversy, in the attainable 
and practical benefits of such a work. 

I cannot, at this time 3 when Popularity, in ruling every 
thing else, has presumed to be the directive Master of Taste 3 
withhold a few remarks on the importance of general principles, 
in the Fine Arts ; since these principles are not only the sure 
Foundation and Preservative defense of a steadfast Intellectual 
Taste, as distinguished from a Taste of changeable preferences, 
and caprice 3 but are at the same time, the most effective means 
for exalting it. And although the entire want of such princi- 
ples, in the use of Intonation, has unnecessarily led to the 
belief that they cannot be instituted, it will be shown in the 
following essays they are not only as essential but like- 



INTRODUCTION. liii 

wise as attainable in Elocution, as in any other art -which 
employs the judgment, and interests the imagination. 

Those persons who receive the highest intellectual enjoyment 
from the works of art, know well, that its fulness and durability 
are chiefly derived from that power of broad and exact discern- 
ment, which is acquired by experience, and time, and by a dis- 
ciplined inquiry into the principles of taste that direct their 
production. A knowledge of these principles constitutes the 
executive faculty of the artist, and gives delight to him who 
contemplates the work. Whatever the physical susceptibility 
may be, it is not the impression of form, or color, or sound, pas- 
sively received by the eye or ear, that creates an enlightened 
perception of the objects of the fine arts. Delicate organiza- 
tion, call it ' Genius ' here if you please, is indeed essential to 
this perception ; still it is the united activity of the senses and 
the brain, in the work of observation and comparison, together 
with the development of new, and the application of pre-estab- 
lished rules 3 which by unfolding the latent tendencies of this 
physical susceptibility, constitutes the extended, the discrimin- 
ative, and the enduring pleasure of taste. And if there is yet 
to be discovered some surpassing efficacy of art, for a surpas- 
sing intellectual delight, it can never be accomplished, except 
through the influence of comprehensive and still accumulating 
precepts ; derived indeed from the study of nature, but applied 
to represent her chosen, corrected, and combined individuali- 
ties ; and thereby, under the human eye at least, to generalize 
and exalt even that Nature, in form if not in purpose, above 
herself. 

Besides the sources of contemplative pleasure, and the means 
of preservation and improvement in an art, afforded by princi- 
ples, their influence is operative after a temporary decline, or 
total loss of its practice. They effect a speedy restoration 
when the influence of evil example has passed away, or a tradi- 
tion of former excellence has produced a desire for its revival. 
The definite description of elementary constituents, and the state- 
ment of the rule of their use, are particularly necessary in the 
art of speaking-well ; since its passing exercise leaves no record 



Hv INTRODUCTION. 

of itself. The works of art, without an explanation of their 
meaning and use, are often as deep an enigma, as the works of 
nature ; and a long course of observation is in each case 
equally required, to note and class their phenomena, and to 
discover their formal, their efficient, and their final causes. 

Although the ancients have left us abundant eulogistic anec- 
dotes on the art of Painting, they have done little more than 
allude to those principles of composition, design, light and 
shade, and coloring, by which their great masters improved 
upon nature, while they professed to imitate her ; and the want 
of a knowledge of these, even with the benefits of patronage, 
was one cause of the delay of at least two centuries, in the 
gradual progress of the art to its full restoration, in modern 
Europe. Stories of the graces of ancient Design were revolved 
in the minds of the image-makers of Italy, and of the decora- 
tors of cloisters, like the problems of the mechanical wonders 
of Archimedes, that were not to be solved by record or tra- 
dition. 

Ancient architecture has, by means of the fragments of its 
ruins, been revived in modern days, to a degree attainable 
through precision of measurement ; and under this view, its 
remains have furnished the highest examples for imitation. 
Delicate observation, aided by a refined taste in other arts, is yet 
required, to retrieve the knowledge of those principles which 
must have directed the taste of the Greeks ; but of which 
Vitruvius gave only an imperfect sketch, while compiling a 
popular book for builders ; and which Pausanias, in his hur- 
ried tour, forgot to set down, as the proper preface to his 
Inventory of temples. 

If the Greek writers on music had not furnished us with a 
knowledge of the ancient scales, and of the principles that di- 
rected their construction and uses, the records of Choragic 
monuments and the accounts of the Odeum, would only have 
excited our wonder at the extraordinary power of instrumental 
sound. The inventive mind of Guido, instead of completing 
the modern scale, might have only laid its foundation, by fixing 



INTRODUCTIOX. lv 

a single chord across a shell, and the finished system of modern 
harmony might now have been just begun. 

Such is the view we take of arts directed by principles, or 
in other words, by precepts collected from experience, for de- 
signing, executing, preserving, and reviving the great and 
desirable works of usefulness and taste : precepts accumulated 
by the efforts of keen and industrious observation, looking to the 
eventual aid of Time ; who, himself never working impatiently, 
becomes the great wonder-worker of all intellectual, as well as 
of all physical creation. 

The following essay exhibits an attempt to describe the con- 
stituents of speech, and the principles of their application, with 
a precision that may enable criticism to be systematic and 
instructive, and thus afford readers at other times and places, 
the means of comprehending its discriminations. 

Discussions on the subject of standard principles, in some of 
the arts, have always involved the question of their origin ; and 
nature has generally been assumed as the source. 

There are two conditions under which nature affords her 
governing rules, for rules are only directive principles. In one, 
she is taken as the model for exact imitation, in those branches 
of art which profess to copy her full and actual details 3 as 
exemplified by the faultless and exquisite artistic delineations, 
in the various departments of Natural History. Here indi- 
vidual nature is the standard ; and here the excellence of art 
consists, in the whole-truth of the resemblance, without the 
least superfluous ideal-touch. In the other, where it is the 
purpose of art to exalt its creations, by an imaginative correct- 
ing of what to our eye, appears to be the exceptionable details 
of nature, or by a selection from her scattered constituents of 
beauty 3 the rule is the result of a congenial knowledge, and 
judgment, exhibited in strong similarity among persons of equal 
instinct and cultivation : which, if it does not prove conformity 
in taste to be the development of an invariable law of nature, 
in the human mind, at least affords education the means to trace 
the causes of beauty and deformity ; and thus to ordain a satis- 
factory and enduring system of laws for itself. 



lvi INTRODUCTION. 

The uses of the voice have not jet been brought under either 
of these conditions. For the first ; Nature or that unenlightened, 
or rather deformed instinct commonly called natural speech, 
does not afford examples of individual excellence ; and has 
perhaps never furnished a single instance, worthy in all respects 
to be copied. For the second condition ; from the want of a 
full knowledge and definite nomenclature of the constituents of 
speech, and careful experiments on the vocal signs of thought 
and passion -j there has never been that clear perception of the 
characteristic causes of beauty and deformity, which would 
warrant the institution of a standard, either by the method of 
selection, or by that of the exalting or corrective power of the 
imagination. The highest achievements in statuary, painting, 
and the landscape, consist of those ideal or invented forms and 
compositions, never perhaps found singly-existent, or purely 
associated in nature ; but which in the estimation of Cultivated 
Taste, and its perfecting agency, may far surpass her individual 
productions. 

The following analytic history of the human voice will enable 
an Elocutionist of any nation, to frame a didactic system for 
his own native and familiar speech. Since it shows that the 
vocal signs of expression have a universality, coexistent with 
the prevalence of human thought and passion ; and that a 
grammar of elocution, like that of music, must be one and the 
same for the whole family of man. He will also find the out- 
line of a system of principles, I have ventured to propose, on 
a survey of those properties of utterance, which seem to me, 
accommodated to the taste of the cultivated ear ; and which being 
rarely, if ever found in corrupted nature, though still within 
the reach of natural science j may in analogy with the highest 
character of the above named arts, be called the Ideal Beauty 
of speech. Believing, that no one age or nation has yet been 
able to prove its claim to superiority in the Art of speech, I 
have presumed to make a universal application of the system of 
the following work, on the ground, of the unity of the laws of 
nature, and of the universality, as we shall show, of the fixed 



INTRODUCTION. lvii 

and describable relations between the states of thought and 
passion, and the vocal signs, which respectively denote them. 

This undertaking is indeed opposed to a vulgar error. The 
inscrutable character, as it is affirmed, and the fancied infinity, 
of the vocal movements, together with the rapid course and 
perpetual variation of utterance, are considered as insuperable 
obstacles to a precise description of the detail and system of 
the speaking voice. This objection will be hereafter answered, 
otherwise than by contentious argument. But we may here, 
only askj if there is no other opportunity to count the radii of 
a wheel than in the race ; or to number and describe the indi- 
viduals of a herd, except in the promiscuous mingling of their 
flight. Music, with its infinitude of details, must still have 
been a mystery, could the knowledge of its intervals and its 
time have been caught-up, only from the multiplied combina- 
tions and rapid execution of the orchestra. The accuracy of 
mathematical calculation, joined with the sober patience of the 
ear over a deliberate practice on its constituents 3 has not had 
more success in disclosing the system of this beautiful and lu- 
minous science, than a similar watchfulness over the deliberate 
movements of speech will afford, for designating the hitherto 
unrecorded phenomena of the voice. If there is any purpose 
in the works of nature, or any foredoomed efficiency of means 
to complete the circle of her designs, we shall find, on the de- 
velopment of her vocal system, some uniform and appropriate 
rules j within the pale of which the voice should be variously 
exercised, to give light to the understanding, and pleasure to 
the ear. 

The accurate sciences, and the fine arts, without our having 
regard to the simplicity of those Primary Causes, in the mind, 
which the more deeply they are viewed, the more we may per- 
ceive only a varied unity in their effects j have been contrasted 
by the kinds, rather than as it should be, by the degrees of 
their claims to truth. The careless argument assumes, that 
taste is merely a wavering thought, or feeling among mankind ; 
and has no rule for their co-perception of grandeur, grace, and 
beauty, in the selected, or imaginative uses of form, color, 
5 



lviii INTRODUCTION. 

and sound. This assumption is one of the delusions of igno- 
rance. But if there is a similar method of perception among 
persons of equal taste and education, it must be founded on 
some general principle of the cultivated intellect. The agree- 
ment therefore, arising from the equalizing law of knowledge, 
gives a character to the principles of taste, analogous at least 
to that, which by a like constitutional law of the mind, in a 
general consent on the subject of abstract relationships j forms 
the full and unquestionable truth of the accurate sciences. 
Under this view of the foundation of the principles of the fine 
arts, we must find at last the measure of their truth, as that of 
the truth of the exact sciences, in the agreement of those who 
cultivate them. He who knows, that all men of education find 
the same properties in a circle, may learn by a similar logic, 
that if the mind should ever be cleared of its human rubbishy 
particular excellencies of the painter, poet, architect, orator, 
statuary, composer, landscape improver, and actor, will reach 
the spring of congenial perception, in those who observe and 
reflect upon their works, and spread-abroad a varied stream 
of ever-during approbation. The claim to accuracy of know- 
ledge is the inherent right of every art. It is not consistent 
with the law of nature, that Truth, upon her simple and im- 
partial seat within the mind, should have her favorites ; let all 
be equally thought-free, strict, and studious, and she will reward 
them all alike. What has been, in the perverse yet often 
repentant human intellect, may be ; and we learn from the 
history of the so called sagacious Greek j who well knew the 
fixed and useful truths of Geometry j that those subjects of 
Natural philosophy, which by a ' New Organ' of the mind, are 
now reduced to the clearness of experimental knowledge, and 
taught to the school-boy j were by that very Greek, regarded as 
too fleeting and disputable, to be a matter for observative 
science, or even to employ the fleeting logic of his endless 
metaphysical disputations. 

Though future times may possibly break down the mischiev- 
ous distinction, which assigns a different kind of logic to differ- 
ent departments of inquiry • and may subject all nature and 



INTRODUCTION. llX 

art, equally, to the simple and sufficient process of Observation 
and Classification ; still it may seem to the present age, that 
between the perception of beauty in the arts, and of the ratios 
of mathematical quantity, there is little similarity. But, aside 
from metaphysical sophistry, there can be no other ground for 
an acknowledged certainty, in our perceptions of the relation- 
ships of magnitude and number, than the undivided and un- 
changing perceptions and belief, of those who sagaciously 
inquire into them. They agree upon themj because they all 
pursue a like connected train of observation, or reasoning as 
this train is usually called j being therein happily separated 
from the world of wranglers, who taking no part or interest in 
truth, do not vexatiously disturb their agreement ; again, because 
they all employ the same precision of terms for these relation- 
ships, and are more dispassionate in their investigations, than 
we are accustomed to be, on the many subjects that involve the 
distractions of our pride, and vanity, and emulation ; because 
they so closely observe the successions, and so strictly, by the 
commanding symbols of analysis, contemplate the bearing of 
premises embraced in a conclusion ; and finally, not because 
they employ on the exact sciences, a different mental method j 
for the mind, apart from its endless ways in popular and scho- 
lastic fiction, has only one method j but because the ambitious 
and worldly attractions of other subjects of knowledge, have 
left the development of these sciences, together with the appli- 
cation of the above described Causes of their success, to the 
retired and self-contented observation and reflection of earnest, 
exact, and persevering inquirers. It is trifling to urge, that 
the properties of a Conic Section are eternal entities of ' pure 
intellect,' quite independent of our accidental and physical 
perception of them, and that they would still exist as truths, 
though they might never be demonstrated. Truth is a compa- 
rative term, uncalled for by Nature, who has no relative errors 
within herself, and was only invented for the uses of a disputa- 
tious and imperfectly-percipient being. Besides, the question 
before us is of knowledge, not of metaphysical notions. Other- 
wise we might, with like proof of an abstract and eternal rule 



lx INTRODUCTION. 

of taste, assert that the proportions of a Greek column existed 
throughout all time, unhewn and unseen in the quarry ; like 
that transcendental conceit of old, which declared 3 the Venus 
of Gnidos was not'the work of Praxiteles ; since Nature herself 
had concreted within the marble, the boundary but hidden 
surface of its beauty ; the artist, when the statue came to light, 
having only produced the fragments of his chisel, and the dust 
of his file. I speak here against an unlimited assertion of the 
variableness of the thoughtful and effective principles of taste, 
and not with the presumption, at this time, even to feign for 
them, a comparison with any established principle of the exact 
sciences. But there are no degrees in truth ; therefore, every 
mathematical purpose which remains without fulfilment by proof 
or solution, must submit to its logical classification with the 
precepts of the arts ; though happily distinguished from them, 
in being free from the interference of Ignorance and Conceit. 
And yet it may be remarked, in anticipation of what will be 
shown hereafter, that the Art of Speech, in three of its impor- 
tant modes 3 namely, Time, with its measurable moments 3 Into- 
nation, with its measurable intervals 3 and Force, with its mea- 
surable degrees 3 though not admissible within the pale of exact 
calculation, is yet upon its border ; and when, through future 
cultivation, it shall take its destined place among the liberal 
arts, it will be found, at least beside Architecture and Music, 
those beautiful associations of taste, with mathematical truth 3 
if indeed, from its principles of intonation being broadly and 
strictly founded in nature, it may not claim to be before them. 
Controversies on points involving the leading principles of 
taste, are generally, contentions of the ignorant with artists, or 
with one another ; and rarely to any great degree, of the differ- 
ences of educated and intelligent artists among themselves. If 
the latter are unable to extend the authority, and the benefits 
of their principles, over the presumptuous part of the multi- 
tude 3 it does not prove that some system of principles may not 
prevail in the arts, or that artists do not enjoy the delightful 
effects of it ; but, that there is more assuming vanity in the 
world than fellowship in knowledge. Silence, or modest inquiry 



INTRODUCTION. lxi 

is the duty of the ignorant ; and where neither is performed j 
Nature seems in their case, to have departed from her plan in 
animal creation, by not withholding from them the litigious 
faculty of speech. 

These differences cannot of themselves, call in question the 
authority of principles in the arts. Most of the phenomena of 
cause and effect in Natural Philosophy, are as obvious as proofs 
of the properties of curves, by the most exact calculus. Still, 
pretenders in every condition of life are constantly trespassing 
within the bounds of this science, by the absurdity of their 
reasonings with each other on points of physical knowledge. 
Knaves exhibit their schemes for producing Perpetual Motion ; 
and the whole host of learned and unlearned credulity cannot 
change the influence of those principles, which as yet, have 
determined the mechanical impossibility. 

There is a wholesome kind of conviction in the mind of fools, 
which forces them to confess their want of knowledge in mathe- 
matics, if they have not studied that science. But taste, say 
they, is 'natural,' therefore every one should have his own. It 
is true, every one knows what will please himself, in his igno- 
rance ; the wise alone know what will please the intelligent, in 
their education. 

In thus advocating the necessity of precepts for the promo- 
tion, government, defense, and restoration of taste, I deprecate 
any inference that these precepts, by furnishing available 
though even conventional rules for an art, tend to confine it to 
an unalterable standard. Established principles are not as the 
barrier of a flood, which in protecting from inroad, sometimes 
restrictive] y prevents the opportunities of further conquest; 
but as the guide and escort of the arts, to acquisitions of wider 
glory. With an exception of that often misused principle, 
Variety j their influence over the arts has always insured their 
advancement, and accompanied their exaltation. The ambi- 
tious search after Novelty, which under another name, too often 
means Variety in the successions of fashion and of schools; 
has, through the restless designs of vanity, and the influence of 



lxii INTRODUCTION. 

unguarded patronage, ruined more arts than all the destructive 
ignorance of the barbarian. 

It will perhaps be said 3 we learn from experience, that a high 
advancement in the arts may lead to perversion from their 
original purpose. This indeed has sometimes been the case. 
By increasing the difficulties of musical execution, in the voice 
and on instruments, this art is, through the singularities of 
mechanical skill, the varied tricks of interest and ambition, and 
the waywardness of undiscerning patronage, frequently exer- 
cised to the indifference or disgust of those, whose approbation 
would be durable ; and to the thoughtless satisfaction of those, 
whom the united caprice of ignorance and fashion may urge 
equally to support or to destroy. 

A full knowledge of the principles and practice of an art, 
enables an industrious and aspiring votary to approach perfec- 
tion ; while idle followers are contented with the defaults of 
imitation. With most men, the labor of the mind, equally with 
that of the body, ceases with the removal of its necessity ; and 
a shameless dependence on the intellectual alms of others, is 
not less common, than the populous growth of pauperism upon 
the increasing provisions of benevolence. The unbounded dis- 
tributions of wise originality, prompt to excuses for indolence, 
and to claims for succor, and the empire itself of the art falls 
at last, under the insurrection and anarchy of its former servile 
dependents. 

But it may be asked by those who think, elocution cannot be 
taught j what relation do these methodic principles of taste, 
bear to the spontaneous, and self-directing uses of speech? 
And why should we seek the assistance of rules, when the 
instinct of thought and passion unerringly effect all their vocal 
purposes ? For it is the belief of those who cannot perceive 
the application of analysis and precept to Elocution, that its 
power consists in the wonder-working of ' genius,' and in proprie- 
ties and graces beyond the reach of art. So seem the plainest 
services of arithmetic to a savage ; and so, to the slave, seem 
all the ways of music which modern art has so accurately 
penned, as to time, and tune, and momentary grace. Igno- 



INTRODUCTION. lxiii 

ranee knows not what has been done ; indolence thinks nothing 
can be done ; and both uniting, borrow from the abused elo- 
quence of poetry, an aphorism to justify supineness of inquiry. 

It is readily admitted of elocution as of the other esthetic 
arts, that a full analysis of speech, together with the establish- 
ment of a system of principles will not in the present benighted 
state of the mind, always exempt it from abuse or ruin. But 
I cannot therefore, refrain from recommending that intellectual, 
and enlarging cultivation of the instinct of the voice, which 
must ensure the highest satisfaction, while the art remains 
uncorrupted, and which, by the description of its constituents 
and method, will afford the best means for any needed restora- 
tion. 

Perhaps it is not going too far, to say 3 the art of speaking, 
when derived from nature, and defended as well as directed by 
the adoption and extension of her ascertained rules, does not 
consist of those purposes and means, that are liable, through 
an ambitious love of change, to end in corruption. Some of 
the fine arts may receive the addition of Ornament, properly 
so called ; which in its excess, is alas, too often the precursor 
of their ruin ; and which, holding but a separate relationship 
to its subject or principal, leaves a refined and guarded taste 
to order the degree of its application, or its total exclusion. 
The art of speaking is subject to no such conditions. The 
representation of thought, and the expression of passion by 
their respective vocal-signs, are fixed in their amenity by an 
unalterable instinct $ or if this is not granted, by the satisfac- 
tory decisions of universal convention. With this ordained 
constitution of the voice, all addition to the numbered signs of 
its language is redundancy, and all mis-placed utterance is 
affectation. 

The following history of the voice is addressed especially to 
those who pursue science with attention and perseverance 3 who 
prefer its useful accuracy, to its ostentation j who are satisfied 
with the 'few, but fit audience j and who know, from their 
own happy experience, that exactness of knowledge is the bright 
felicity of intellect. To inquirers of this character, it need not 



lxiv INTRODUCTION. 

be said, that even the rapid flight of speech may be more easily 
followed, "when the general principles of its movements are 
understood. The hesitation of the ear will be prompted by the 
mind, and we shall more readily discern what is, by knowing 
what ought to be. 

After the preceding representation of our limited knowledge 
of the functions of the voice, and upon the promises of a more 
extended and precise analysis, the reader must be prepared to 
find in the following essay, a new, but I hope not a distracting 
nomenclature. When unnamed additions are made to the sys- 
tem and detail of an art, terms must be invented for them ; and 
even when its known phenomena are exhibited under varied 
relationships, the purpose of description is less perplexed by 
the novelty of terms, than by an attempt to give another appli- 
cation or meaning to former names. 

Many of the varieties of pitch being accurately designated 
and clearly arranged in music 3 a part of its nomenclature is, in 
this essay, transferred to the description of speech ; and when- 
ever a language has been purposely framed, I have endeavored 
to make it, by direct or metaphorical use, purely explanatory 
of the vocal functions. 

Although I have gone deeply into the philosophical history 
of speech, and have spared no pains in illustrating whatever 
might from its novelty, be otherwise obscure 3 I have not pre- 
tended to make specific application of all the principles here 
laid down, to every case of the reading and speaking voice. 
As the design of this essay is, to promulgate a new Institute of 
Elocution, I have endeavored to accommodate the full requi- 
sitions of the subject, to the limitation of my time, by brief 
generalities of explanation and of method ; which, in holding 
the light of instruction broadly, yet distinctly, over the whole, 
may enable others to perceive the relationship of the parts ; 
and thus with the closer and more particular hand of detail, to 
unite in purpose for the completion of the work. The full 
devolopment of an art, in all its practical bearings, can be 
effected only by the united labor of many, and of their lives. 
Here is the result of the leisure of about three years, snatched 



INTRODUCTION. LxV 

from the daily duty of extensive professional occupation. If 
in discharging the duties of that profession, I have selected 
from its physiological department, a subject of inquiry which 
gives its ultimate services in another art, I have not therein 
forgotten that Nature, who never is ungrateful to the eyes that 
watch her, has still her secrets in the human frame, yet to be 
told for the instruction, health, or happiness of man ; the future 
search after which, may not be without success 3 and will not 
be, without the satisfaction experienced in conducting these 
offered scrutinies of the tongue and ear. 

The reception which may await the following work, can be of 
no important interest to me. By taking care to antedate any 
expected season of its penalties and rewards, I have already 
found them in the varied perplexity and pleasure of its accom- 
plishment. I leave it therefore for the service of him, who may 
in future desire to read the history of his voice. The system 
here presented will satisfy much of his curiosity ; for I feel 
assured, by the result of the rigid method of observation 
employed throughout the inquiry, that if science should ever 
come to one consent on this point, it will not differ essentially 
from the ensuing record. The world has long asked for light 
on this subject. It may not choose to accept it now ; but having 
idly suffered its own opportunity for discovery to go by, it must, 
under any capricious postponement, at last receive it here. 

Sir Joshua Reynolds has a pretty thought, on the labors of 
ambition and the choice of fame. I do not remember his words 
exactly ; but he figures the present age and posterity as rivals, 
and those who receive the favor of one, as being outcasts from 
the other. This condition, while it allows a full but transient 
satisfaction to the zeal which works only for a present reward, 
does not exclude all prospect from those who are contented in 
the anticipation of deferred success. Truth, whose first steps 
should be always vigorous and alone, is often obliged to lean 
for support and progress on the arm of Time ; who then only, 
when supporting her, seems to have laid aside his wings. 

Philadelphia, January, 1827. 



PHILOSOPHY 



THE HUMAN YOICE. 



SECTION I. 

Of the general Divisions of Vocal Sound : with a more particu- 
lar account of its Pitch. 

All the constituents of the human voice, may be referred to 
the five following Modes : 

QUALITY, 

FORCE, 

TIME, 

ABRUPTNESS, 

PITCH. 

The detail of these five modes, and of the multiplied combi- 
nation of their several forms, degrees, and varieties, includes 
the enumeration of all the Articulating and the Expressive 
powers of speech. 

The extension of knowledge calls for an additional nomencla- 
ture ; and new facts and principles on the subject of the voice, 
will require new terms for the description and arrangement of 
them. It is therefore proper to show, how far common nomen- 
clature fulfils the purpose of explanation and division ; and to 
provide the means by which an obvious deficiency may be 
supplied. 



05 DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 

The terms by which the Quality or kind of voice is distin- 
guished, are 3 rough, smooth, harsh, full, thin, musical, 
and some others of the same metaphorical structure. They are 
sufficiently numerous ; and as descriptive as possible, without 
reference to exemplar sounds. Vocalists have proposed to dis- 
tinguish the singing voice, by its resemblance to the sound of 
the reed, the string, and the musical-glass. The sub-animals 
afford analogies to the different qualities in the human voice. 

For the specifications of Force, we use the words 3 strong, 
weak, loud, soft, forcible, and feeble. These are indefi- 
nite in their indication, and without any fixed relationship in 
degree. Music has more orderly and numerously distinguished 
the varieties of force, by its series of terms from Pianissimo to 
Fortissimo. I shall, in its proper place, make some new dis- 
tinctions in the manner of employing this mode. 

Time, in speaking, is denoted by the terms 3 long, short, 
quick, slow, and rapid. Music has a more precise scale of rela- 
tionship, in its order of signs from semibreve to double-demi- 
semiquaver. The single or unaccompanied sound of speech 
does not call for that nicety in Time, which the concerting of 
music requires ; yet there is need of more precision in designa- 
ting its degrees, than the usual terms of prosody afford. Mr. 
Steele gives examples of an application of the symbols of music, 
to his idea of the time of discourse. I shall hereafter make 
a division of this mode, with reference to English syllables, and 
to their employment in speech. 

I use the term Abruptness, to signify the sudden and full 
discharge of sound, as contradistinguished from its more gradual 
emission. Abruptness is well represented by the explosive 
notes which may be executed on the bassoon, and by a quick 
touch on the organ. I have given this mode of the voice, the 
place and importance of a general head, not only as an ex- 
pressive agent in speech, but because its characteristic explosion 
is peculiar, and quite distinct from the mode of Force ; with 
which, from its admitting degrees of intensity, it might seem to 
be identical. 

The variations of Pitch are denoted by the words 3 rise and 



DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 69 

fall, high and low, acute and grave. The vague import and 
the insufficiency of this division were shown in our introduction : 
and as the following history of the voice makes especial refe- 
rence to this mode, and gives a minute detail of its numerous 
forms and varieties, it is necessary to adopt a more extended, 
and more definite nomenclature. 

It happened well, for our assistance in developing the phe- 
nomena of speech, that most of the forms of pitch were long 
ago observed, analyzed, and named, in the proper science of 
music. Some of its uses however, in the speaking voice, are 
not technically known in that science. For these I have made 
a language. But most of the constituents of the musical sys- 
tem, though dhTerently employed, are also found in speech. 
It is advisable therefore, to adopt the musical terms for these 
identical functions : since they are already known to many, 
and may, through elementary treatises, be easily learned by 
all ; and since the application of different names, to things of 
essential resemblance, would counteract one great object of 
philosophy ; which is, to include all similar phenomena under 
the same verbal classes ; notwithstanding they may happen 
to be separated, by place and name, in our artificial arrange- 
ments. In collecting facts from Nature, who is no respecter 
of position or title, we must take them where we find them, and 
class them, just as they agree. I shall therefore give a concise 
account of the terms by which the forms of pitch are distin- 
guished in music. 

In entering upon this elementary and important explanation, 
wherein a recognition of sound, is absolutely necessary for 
comprehending the subsequent parts of this workj I must beg 
the reader not to be discouraged by temporary difficulty. He 
who has been taught the principles of instrumental or of vocal 
music, and is able to execute accurately what is called the 
Scale or Grammut, will understand the following descriptions, 
without much hesitation. While he who is ignorant of the 
relations of musical sounds, and of the regular scale by which 
they have been arranged, must on this, as on so many other 
subjects of the school which need perceptible illustration, have 



70 DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 

recourse to a living instructor. He can generally find at hand, 
instrumental performers, or singing masters, or the clerk of 
some neighboring church, who will exemplify to his satisfaction 
all that is merely descriptive here. 

The reader is not referred indiscriminately, to musicians and 
singers, for any assistance in his application of the principles 
of music to the analysis of speech. The system of mechanical 
formality to which many of them have in a great degree cir- 
cumscribed their views, together with the wasteful industry of 
their perpetual practice upon difficulties has, generally speak- 
ing, so limited their perceptive faculty, that the most striking 
analogy in other things, to p*oints of their own art, is rarely 
first observed by them ; but they know well their daily practical 
routine. To them therefore the reader is referred, for exem- 
plification of a technical nomenclature, which I have here, 
only the means of words and diagram to explain. 

For an elementary account of the mathematical and mechan- 
ical investigation of the formal causes of Sound, the reader is 
referred to writers on Acoustics. By them, the whole of its 
phenomena have been assigned to two general divisions : Noise, 
formed by Irregular, and Musical or Tunable sound, by Regu- 
lar, vibrations. It is difficult however, to draw an exact line 
of separation between these divisions ; since even noise, when 
continued, has however rude and obscure, a certain kind of 
musical capability, and may have more or less of an awkward 
variation in pitch. But the obvious differences in the two 
cases, are sufficient for the purposes of this essay ; though we 
shall hardly refer to the effect of noise, except in designating 
those remarkable and deafening assaults upon the ear, by the 
combined vociferations, and instrumental crashes of a full- 
assembled Opera-Chorus. Corresponding to the above distinc- 
tions, I shall regard sound as Tunable, and Untunable ; and shall 
consider the former as properly including vocal and instru- 
mento-musical sound. 

As Speech and Music, when regarded under the Mode of 
pitch, are sub-divisions of the General Science of Tunable 
Sound, the reader will perceive the necessity of designating 



DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 71 

and explaining those terms which belong alike to both ; or are 
restrictively appropriated to each. 

The term Pitch is applied to the variations of tunable sound, 
between its lowest and its highest appreciable degree. This 
variation between gravity and acuteness, is represented in the 
human voice, by the two extremes of hoarseness, and screaming. 

The different degrees of Pitch in music are denoted by what 
is called the Scale ; the formation of which may be thus illus- 
trated. 

When the bow is drawn across a string of a Violin, and the 
finger at the same time gradually moved, with continued pres- 
sure on the string, from its lower attachment to any distance 
upwards, a mewing sound, if I may so call it, is heard. This 
mewing is caused by the gradual change from gravity to acute- 
ness, through the gradual shortening of the string : and as it 
thus rises by a succession of uninterrupted momentary changes, 
each continuous or concreted, as it were, in its increments of 
time and of motion, I shall call it Concrete sound. This move- 
ment of pitch, on the violin, is termed a Slide. 

The reader may himself exemplify this concrete sound, by 
uttering the single syllable aye, as if he were asking a question 
with the expression of earnest surprise, yet rather deliberately ; 
beginning at the lowest, and ending at the highest limit of his 
voice. The gradual rising-movement in this case is concrete : 
yet as the voice, and any other tunable sound may be con- 
tinued in one uninterrupted movement upon the same line of 
pitch, without rising or falling j it is proper to remark, that the 
term Concrete is in this essay, applied only to an uninterrupted 
movement in a rising, and in a falling direction. 

Now, the sounds of what is called the Scale, in Music, do not 
rise by a connected or concrete movement ; but are made, by 
drawing the bow, only while the finger is held stationary at 
certain successive places on the string : thus showing an inter- 
ruption of the continuous upward slide. These places are 
seven in number ; their distances from each other being 
determined by a natural law, and rendered precisely measura- 
ble by a scientific rule for subdividing the string, which we 



72 



DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 



14 



13 



T >C 



11 



6 io 



12 



need not consider here. Other sounds still 
ascending on the string above these seven, may 
be made by a similar interrupted progression. 
But since the second series of seven sounds, 
though of higher pitch, yet adjusted by the same 
rule j do each to each in order, so nearly accord 
with the first seven, that they may be consi- 
dered as a kind of repetition of them ; and as 
the same is true of all the series of seven, that 
may be formed between the lowest and the high- 
est limit of sound j the whole extent of varia- 
tion in acutenes and gravity, is regarded as 
consisting of the simple scale of seven sounds, 
repeated in different series or ranges of pitch. 

The sound at each of these places of the 
scale is continued on the same line of pitch, and 
may thus be called Linear, or Level, or Pro- 
tracted. 

On the margin, a diagram represents the 
places where we suppose the string to be pressed, 
and the level line of pitch to be made, when the 
bow is drawn : the black disks on the line, at 
the places of two of the repeated series of seven 
sounds, being marked numerically : the initials 
T and S, respectively denoting the terms, Tone 
and Semitone, which will presently be explained. 
Upon comparing this picture with the above 
account of the production of concrete sound, and 
supposing the concrete progression upon the 
string to be represented by the continuous vertical line of the 
diagram, on which these numerical places are marked by the 
disks j it is obvious, that portions of the concrete must be 
unheard, when the bow is drawn, only while the finger is sta- 
tionary at the several places. The sounds thus separately pro- 
duced at these places, with an omission of the intermediate 
concrete, I shall call Discrete Sounds. These, when heard 



DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 73 

successively in a given order, as represented by the diagram, 
constitute a Discrete Scale.* 

The explanation thus given of the manner of concrete and 
discrete progressions, in an upward direction, is to he under- 
stood of the downward course, under a reverse movement of 
the gradual slide, and of the interrupted sound, on the string. 

The variations of pitch on most musical instruments are dis- 
crete. The violin and its varieties derive much of their expres- 
sive power, from being susceptible of the concrete movement ; 
and it is one of the great sources, as will be shown hereafter, of 
Expression in the human voice. 

The several places at which we suppose the sounds to be 
made in the discrete progression, are numerically designated in 
the diagram, and are called the Places, Points, or Degrees of 
the scale. Any two degrees are, by relative position, called 
Proximate, when they are next to each other ; and Remote, 
when they include more than proximate degrees between them. 

The distance between any two points in the scale, either 
proximate or remote, is called an Interval. A musical interval 
was by the Greeks, defined to be a l quantity of a certain kind, 
terminated by a graver and an acuter sound.' But for particu- 
lar application to speech, it is necessary to regard that quan- 
tity as either continuous sound, or imaginary space ; and to 
consider the effect of the transit of the voice from one degree 
of the scale to another, as constituting an interval, whether 
the voice is concretely heard, or discretely omitted between 

* This continuity and this disjunction of the line of pitch are known to most 
musicians, only under the respective names of Slide, and Skip. The terms con- 
crete and discrete, as here applied, are borrowed from mathematics ; in which 
science they designate the two great generic divisions of quantity. Thus Mag- 
nitude is the concrete quantity; for the lines, surfaces, and solids which con- 
stitute it, have their respective parts, so to speak, concreted or united immediately 
with each other: whereas Number is the discrete quantity; since the distinct 
succession of its constituent units is altogether different from the above 
described linear continuity. 

The most familiar illustration of these terms, applied to the two kinds of 
quantity in musical sound, is furnished by the form of a ladder, the side rails 
representing the concrete, and the rounds the discrete. 
6 



74 DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 

them. The intervals in their proximate order, are measured as 
follows :* 

The interval, or the quantity of concrete voice either heard, or 
omitted, between the first and the second places, as numbered 
in the diagram, is called a Tone.f 

That between the second and third is likewise a tone. 

That between the third and fourth, which appears in the dia- 
gram as but half the space of a tone, is called a Semitone. 

The interval between the fourth and fifth, fifth and sixth, 
sixth and seventh, is each a tone ; and lastly, that between the 
seventh, and the eighth or first of the next series, a semitone. 

The intervals between the' degrees of the scale, either proxi- 
mate or remote, are designated numerically ; the extreme 
degrees being inclusively counted. Thus, from the second to 
the third, or from the sixth to the seventh, is the interval of a 
second or tone ; from the second to the sixth, or from the fourth 
to the eighth, is the interval of a fifth. And so of the rest ; 
the numerical name of any interval being the same, when taken 
in an upward, or in a downward direction. 

Though the several discrete sounds of the scale are named 
according to their ordinal number, yet the first, relatively to its 

* The -well-informed reader should regard this general view of the scale, and 
the manner of its illustration, with a thoughtfulness of my design. I omit the 
theoretic distinction of greater and lesser tone, of diatonic and chromatic semi- 
tone, and of the major and minor scale, together with other particulars, both 
melodial and harmonic^ with an intention to notice only what is preparatory to 
the description of speech. 

f The reader must bear in mind, that the word tone in this essay, designates 
only a certain interval of pitch ; since common language applies it alike to 
pitch, quality, force and time; as in the phrases 'high and low tones of the 
voice,' 'musical, rustic and silver tones;' 'an emphatic or loud tone;' and a 
' deliberate, quick and drawling tone.' Even music, with all its scientific pre- 
cision, is not free from slight confusion on this point. For while it employs the 
word tone, for that interval to which we restrict its use, it at the same time, 
designates quality, in the terms, ' tone of the flute,' and of other instruments, 
and the 'pure tone' of the vocalist. The French word timbre, corresponding 
to our quality, and sometimes applied to the voice, would, in common English 
pronunciation, soon get into downright ship timber. Let us not be 'frightened 
at the sound ourselves have made,' but call quality, by the plain English term 
Quality ; the timid recollecting, it comes from a word used by Cicero and Caesar. 



DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 75 

rising series, is generally called the Key-note. Consequently, 
in two or more series of scales, the eighth sound, or Octave as it 
is called, of the preceding is always the key-note of the suc- 
ceeding scale ; as in the vertical diagram, the sound at the 
eighth place, is the octave of the first series, and the key-note 
of the second. 

The succession of the seven sounds of any one series, to 
which the octave is usually added, is called the Natural or 
Diatonic Scale. It consists of five tones and two semitones ; 
the latter being the intervals between its third and fourth, and 
its seventh and eighth degrees. The scale then contains these 
several kinds of intervals 3 a semitone; a second, or whole 
tone ; a third ; fourth ; fifth ; sixth ; seventh ; and octave. 

By the diagram, the interval between the second and fourth 
degrees is numerically a third, yet contains but one tone and a 
semitone ; whereas, that between the first and third degrees, 
still numerically the interval of a third, contains two whole 
tones. From this difference in constituency, and extent, the 
former is called a Minor Third, and the latter a Major Third. 
But since the minor third is never used in correct speech, the 
term Third will in this work, except where the minor is speci- 
fied, always refer to the major interval. 

Having thus far, described the construction of the Musical 
Scale, I here advise the reader, who may not be a musician, 
and who may be ignorant of the effect of the sounds of that 
scale 3 to ask, from some qualified master, an audible example 
of its upward and downward progression, and of its several 
intervals. This he will give, under that practical exercise on 
the scale called in the language of vocal science, Solfaing. 
Let the reader studiously imitate this exemplification, and com- 
mit it to memory. If destitute of what is called a musical ear, 
let him not think himself unable to discriminate those intervals, 
which he has now learned to be a part of music. In communi- 
ties where the cultivation of this art is general, these things are 
all learned, by thousands who, with their natural ear, would 
never have caught the simplest phrase of a popular song. And 
surely there is no one, into whose hands this book will ever fall, 



76 



DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 



who can possibly avoid perceiving the several differences of 
meaning, or expression, in the speaking voice 3 when he is ad- 
dressed in the language of narrative, surprise, complaint, autho- 
rity, or interrogation. Now these various expressive effects 
are perceptible to him, and accurately so, only as concrete or 
discrete movements of the voice through certain appropriate 
intervals of the scale. His ear therefore does really recognize 
these movements 3 these intervals of the si^eahing scale. I only 
give to his understanding and his tongue, their musical method 
and names. 

"When an instructor cannot be met with, the use of a well- 
tuned Piano-Forte may assist those who have no acquaintance 
with the scale. On the key-board of this instrument there is a 
front row of white keys, as they are called, and a rear row of 
black ones. A representation of their forms and positions, is 
given in the following diagram ; where a portion of the Great 
Scale j or as its whole extent is called, the Compass of the 
instrument -» is shown ; the white keys being numbered above, in 
continuation as far as twenty-one; and below, in a repeated 
series of seven. 



10 11 * 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 





67.1234507.1234567 



Any one of the series of seven white keys, of which there are 
three in the diagram -» when struck successively ascending from 
left to right, gives the seven discrete rising sounds of the diatonic 
scale. The black keys are set between the white ones, to divide 
the whole tones into semitones. Hence, the black keys are 
wanting at the semitonic intervals of the scale, where their 
purpose cannot apply. This omission visibly separates the 
black keys alternately into pairs and triplets. 



DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 77 

With the foregoing explanation, the reader can have no 
difficulty in finding a diatonic series on the white keys of a 
Piano-Forte ; since the key-note or beginning of the series 
always lies next below the pair of black keys. Let him then, 
on that series which suits the pitch of his speaking voice, utter 
one of the vowels or any of its syllabic combinations, in unison 
with the instrumental sounds, both in their proximate succession 
of a tone, and in the wider transitions between remote degrees 
of the scale j till the whole is familiar to his ear, and at the call 
of memory. It is true, the Piano-Forte can show him only the 
discrete movements of pitch ; but when these are cognizable, 
and under command, the concrete may readily be measured by 
them. But to proceed with our explanation. 

The linear, level, or protracted sound at any of the places of 
the discrete scale, is called a Note. This term note, is to be 
carefully distinguished from that of Tone, which as before 
stated, signifies not a level line of sound, but a rising or falling 
interval of pitch ; and in this essay, is applied, either to the 
concrete transit of the voice between any two adjoining degrees, 
except those bounding a semitone, or to the amount of space 
between such degrees, when the transit is discrete. 

As the term tone is thus used for the interval of a second, 
under the two conditions of concrete and discrete pitch, so are 
the terms of other intervals, included between remote degrees ; 
for the voice may move concretely through these intervals, or 
notes may be made at these degrees, with the omission of the 
concrete. Let us call the former of these conditions, Concrete 
Intervals, and the latter, Discrete Intervals : one being, figu- 
ratively, a rising or falling stream of voice, the other a voice- 
less space. 

The first, third, and fifth notes of the diatonic scale, to which 
the octave, as a concording repetition of the first is usually 
added, differ from the other notes in being more agreeable to the 
ear when heard in combination, and in immediate succession. 
The degrees in this order, are also more readily 'hit' by an inex- 
perienced voice, in an endeavor to execute the several discrete 
intervals of the scale: and that simple instrument the Jews- 



78 DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 

harp, and some species of the Horn more readily yield these 
successive notes, under the faltering attempts of a learner. 
When therefore the pupil takes his lesson on the scale, let him 
familiarize his ear to the succession of its first, third, fifth and 
octave notes ; omitting the intermediate degrees. Frequent 
reference will be made hereafter, to his perceptions on this 
point. 

Below, is a representation of the manner in which musicians 
set their symbols for the diatonic sounds, on that linear Table 
called the Staff. The staff consists of five horizontal and 
parallel lines, having four spaces between them. Each space 
and line represents a degree of the scale ; so that from one 
space or line to the next line or space, is a second ; and these 
degrees are called conjoint or proximate. When the discrete 
movement is over a wider interval than a second, it is called a 
Skip ; and the degrees are said to be Remote. The succession 
of the scale is here marked by disks, rising from the lowest line 
to the highest space of the staff; the intervals of the semitones 
being designated by a brace. 



"2f 



I have thus endeavored to describe the continuous or Con- 
crete movement of sound ; and its discrete or interrupted pro- 
gression through the diatonic scale. 

As there are but two semitones in the scale, it is necessary, 
for the accommodation of instruments with fixed keys, to sub- 
divide the whole tones. The manner of the subdivision may be 
thus described.* 

* As the reader has learned above, the form, and places of the semitone, it is 
not essential that he should strictly attend to the detailed explanation, in the 
two following paragraphs ; since most of it is not applicable to speech. I say 
this, only in reference to his finding it difficult. In letting him know, there is 
a succession of degrees, called the Semitonic Scale, I describe the manner of its 
construction; for with a knowledge of this, his ideas of the relations between 
Music and Speech will be more extended and precise. Let him then understand 
it, if not too troublesome j being mindful to read the last two sentences of the 
second paragraph. 



DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 79 

In any series of seven notes, as the first marked in the pre- 
ceding vertical diagram of the scale, and in that of the white 
keys of the key-board, let us assume the Fifth, as the first or 
key-note of a new series. This with its octave, will extend to 
the place numbered twelve. Six of its places in their rising 
order, from five to ten, will have right positions ; and thus far, 
the intervals of tone and semitone will exhibit the proper suc- 
cessions of the diatonic scale. But the interval between the 
tenth and eleventh is a semitone, and that between the eleventh 
and twelfth a tone ; whereas, by the rule for constructing the 
scale, the order should be reversed. For the tenth, eleventh, 
and twelfth marked in the diagrams, are respectively the sixth, 
seventh, and eighth of the new series assumed from the fifth. 
When therefore the tone, or interval from eleven to twelve, is 
subdivided into two semitones, as shown by a cross in the ver- 
tical diagram, and by a black key below the star in that of the 
key-board j and the transit is then made from the tenth place, 
to this point of division 3 two semitones, making thus one whole 
tone, are passed over ; the interval from this point of division 
to the twelfth is a semitone, and thus the constituent intervals 
of the diatonic scale in this second series, are obtained. 

Now, to continue a subdivision of the whole tones of the 
scale, by rising a fifth on the previous series, would soon carry 
us beyond the limit of our diagrams. But we must observe T 
that the fifth above a key-note, holds the same relative posi- 
tion in a scale, as the fourth below it. If then, for the key-note 
of a third series, we take the fifth above the key-note of the 
second series, or the fourth below it, they will be respectively 
the ninth and the second of the diagrams ; and these are consi- 
dered the same, because they each have the like position of 
second in the two series of the key-board. Thus a subdivision 
of the whole tone, between the fifteenth and sixteenth, on the 
key-board, if the fifth above is taken, or between the eighth and 
ninth if the fourth below j will, with the subdivision in the pre- 
ceding series, give the constituent diatonic intervals of this 
third series. And thus progressively, by taking the fifth above 
the key-note of the previous series, or the fourth below it, and 



80 DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 

using the previous subdivisions, every place of the scale may 
become the first of a series ; and every whole tone may thereby 
be divided, as shown by the black keys in the diagram of the 
key-board. This division produces a series of semitones. 
When therefore the progression is made by them, the order of 
degrees is called the Semitonic, or more commonly the Chro- 
matic Scale. 

But it is necessary for the future history of speech, that the 
succession of discrete sounds should be exhibited under still 
more reduced divisions. These consist in a discrete transition 
through the scale, by intervals much smaller than a semitone ; 
each point being as it were, rapidly touched by a momentary 
and abrupt emission of voice. This description may be illus- 
trated by the manner of that noise in the throat called gurgling, 
and by the neighing of a horse. The analogy here regards 
principally the momentary duration, frequency, and abruptness 
of sound ; for the gurgling is generally made by a quick itera- 
tion on one unvarying or level line of pitch. But in the scale 
now under consideration, each successive pulse of sound is 
taken at a Minute Discrete-interval above the last, till the 
series reaches the octave. We cannot tell the precise extent of 
this minute interval, nor the number of pulses in given portions 
of the scale ; since this function is executed in a manner, and 
with a rapidity that eludes discrimination. Nor is this point 
material now. My purpose requires it to be known, that the 
voice does rise and fall, with short and abrupt iterations, 
through the whole extent of pitch, by discrete steps, less than 
a semitone. Whether the discrete space is that fractional part 
of a tone called a comma, or some division or multiple of it, we 
leave to be determined by other means than that of the ear 
alone. Let us then call this species of movement, the Tremu- 
lous Scale. 

We have thus, four different kinds of progression in pitch ; 
and though in speaking of the concrete, its slide was not called 
a scale, since its unbroken line has no analogy with the inter- 
rupted steps of a discrete succession ; yet with a full under- 
standing of its construction, there can be no objection to its 
being so called. 



DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 81 

There are then Four scales of pitch. The Concrete; in 
which, from the outset to the termination of the voice, either in 
rising or falling, there is no appreciable interval, or interrup- 
tion of continuity. 

The Diatonic ; wherein the discrete transitions are principally 
by whole tones. 

The Chromatic ; consisting of a discrete succession of semi- 
tones.: and, 

The Tremulous ; which with its momentary impulses, sepa- 
rated from each other by very minute intervals •> has never, as 
far as I know, been employed on musical instruments, in an 
upward and a downward progression ; the tremolo being a 
tremor on a straight line of pitch ; and the Trill or Shake 
being as will be shown hereafter, a totally distinct function. 

The extent through which the speaking voice is used in any 
of these four scales, within the limits of distinct articulation, is 
called the Compass of Speech.* 

* There is a musical scale, described by the Greeks, but used only at an early 
period, called the Enharmonic ; which however, has no relation to the natural 
system of speech ; yet from the term 'Enharmonic voice,' employed without 
explanation by Dionysius Thrax, a Greek grammarian, who lived shortly before 
the Christian era j it seems to have been inferred, that the spoken intonation of 
the Ancients was somehow formed on this scale : and though Mr. Steele suffered 
his observation to be so far overruled by the vague authority of this idea, as to 
give the diagram of his proposed scale with what he calls an enharmonic divi- 
sion ^ perhaps a short account of this division, may convince the render, as we 
proceed, that it could not have been employed in the proper intonation of what 
we shall consider Natural speech. 

The Greek musical scale consisted of only three intervals, embraced between 
four degrees, as marked by the strings of their instruments, and was therefore 
called the Tetrachord. The moderns have made their scale an Octachord, or 
Octave, by joining two successive Greek scales, with a tone between tbem : for 
in our octave, from C to F, and again from G to C, each of the two sets of four 
degrees, has the like order of their constituent tones and semitones ; showing 
that the tetrachord scale is just half of ours. Now our music employs but one 
proper scale, the diatonic ; for the chromatic is not an independent one, on 
which a melody can be made with its semitones alone ; but is formed, for occa- 
sional use, by dividing the whole tones^ that the semitones may be employed 
in other places, than the two which are proper to them, in the natural diatonio 
succession. Neither in music nor in song, do we technically recognize the 
Concrete and the Tremulous Scales: and it was the same with the Greeks. 



82 DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 

For the purpose of explanation, the scales have been repre- 
sented separately, though in the practice of the voice they are 

The Greek -writers describe six different scales ; three chromatic ; two dia- 
tonic ; and one enharmonic, formed respectively, by certain subdivisions of the 
scale into intervals of different extent. For illustration however, we will 
describe only, what they called the Intense diatonic, and the Enharmonic. 
Suppose then the Tetrachord to be divided into sixty imaginary parts ; and let 
C, D, E and F be the places, or degrees, including its three intervals ; 24 to 
represent the tone ; 12 the semitone; and 6 the quarter-tone, called diesis, or 
the enharmonic interval. Thus, the Intense-diatonic Tetrachord, which is, 
when doubled, and united by a tone, the same we now employe was arranged 
thus : 

C Tone. D Tone. E Semitone. F 

24 24 12 

The Enharmonic tetrachord thus : 

C Ditone. D Diesis. E Diesis. F 

48 6 6 

Now as 48, the double of 24 make two tones ; and six, the fourth or quarter 
of 24, the diesis ; the enharmonic arrangement, is that of a ditone or major 
third and two successive quarter-tones. 

The Greeks themselves state, that the musical use of the scale was very diffi- 
cult ; and in later times was altogether laid aside: neither of which, as cause 
or consequence, could have occurred if there had been a natural character in 
it; for certainly, a continued tune on a succession of its intervals would, to 
a modern and natural ear, until fashion should recommend it, be altogether 
ineffective, or very abominable. However this might be, we shall learn here- 
after, that speech makes no specifically distinct nor appreciable use of the quar- 
ter-tone : showing how the history of the human voice has in this as in so many 
other ways, been falsified and confused. 

The other four scales seem to have had no more of a natural condition, than the 
Enharmonic ; and this leads to the conclusion, that like ourselves, the Greeks 
used the diatonic as the only scale for agreeable melody, and for any harmony 
they may have known and practiced. 

But why should all the Greek writers have named their other scales, if they 
never used them ? This we cannot answer : but laying aside, for a moment, 
our prescribed rules for observing, reflecting, and writing, we will offer a pass- 
ing fancy and no more, upon it. 

Since the ear for music, like the eye for Euclid's circle and square, and the 
tongue for wormwood and honey, is the same now, that it was among the 
Greeks ^ we can account for their being satisfied with their unnatural scales, by 
supposing^ First; that a few particular phrases of ritual chants, or of choral 
responses j formed out of the peculiar succession of the notes of these scales, 
on some early and imperfect instrument 3 were so closely associated with 
the Temple Service, the Sacrifice, the Procession, or with a Popular Obsti- 






DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 83 

variously united ; since speech makes use of them all. The 
concrete is always found; and we shall hereafter learn in what 
manner the diatonic, chromatic, and tremulous scales are joined 
with it. 

The term Melody is, in music, applied to a regulated vocal 
or instrumental use of the diatonic and chromatic scales. The 
full meaning of the term embraces the further relations of time, 
rythmus, and pause. I here speak of pitch alone. That effect 
in music called melody, is produced by the use of the seven 
notes of the scale, in any agreeable order of their possible per- 
mutations, either in a Proximate or Skipping progression. 
We shall learn hereafter, that the Melody of Speech is founded 
on a like principle of varied intervals ; while it has peculiari- 
ties, arising from a systematic use of its concrete, discrete, and 
tremulous movements, and from its not being affected by the 
doctrine of what in music is called, Key. 

The term Key is applied to each of the several series of the 
diatonic scale, on musical instruments. And as it appears by 
the diagram of the key-board, that the Semitonic divisions of 
the whole tones of the scale make twelve places 3 from each of 
which a diatonic succession may be arranged 3 so the scale of 
the piano forte admits of twelve different keys ; and these being 
subdivided into Flat and Sharp Keys, make twenty-four in 
all : but these have no regard to speech. The first note of the 
succession is called as we said formerly, the key-note. The 
relationship of this to the other notes of the scale is such, that 
a melody will appear unfinished, if its last sound be not the 
key-note of the scale, or the octave to it, which is its nearest 
concord. 

It. is a condition in music, that a melody formed of the varied 
permutations of the notes of any one key, shall not employ the 

nacy in some rude vocal habit, as to reconcile the ear to any oddity and dis- 
sonance. Or, second ; by supposing, the unnatural melodies or successions on 
these scales, to be traditions of the canting shouts of barbarian Festivals, 
originally excited by some wild religious working on the voice^ after its man- 
ner of working on the eye, in making to itself, without a revolting of truth or 
taste, the graven image of its Gods, in every outrageous contortion of the human 
form. But these conjectures are apart from the desigu of this work. 



84 DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 

constituent notes of another. Thus in the vertical diagram, 
there is the first series, with its key-note at number one ; and a 
second with its key-note at five. To form this second series, 
we divided the tone between the eleventh and twelfth points j 
to obtain the second semitone of the diatonic scale ; and it 
appears that all the notes are common to the two series, except 
the seventh of the second, marked eleven in the diagram. Now 
a melody or tune begun on the first series, cannot employ that 
eleventh, and be agreeable to the ear, except with a design to 
leave the first series, and afterwards to carry on the tune alto- 
gether by the notes of the second. This transition from one 
series to another is called Modulation, or Changing the key. 
It is employed in vocal and instrumental music, but is not 
applicable to speech. 

The term Intonation signifies the act of performing the 
movements of pitch through any interval of the several scales, 
whether in speech, in song, or in instrumental use. It there- 
fore regards, only the changes of sound between acuteness and 
gravity. Intonation is said to be correct or true, when the 
discrete steps, or concrete slides over the intended interval are 
made with exactness. Deviation from this precision is called, 
singing, or playing, or as it may be hereafter, Speaking false.* 

The term Cadence in music, means, a consummation of the 
desire for a full close in the melody, by the resting of its last 
sound in the key-note.. It will be shown hereafter, that the 
cadence or close of speech is effected in a different manner. 

I have thus endeavored to prepare the reader for all that 

* Instead of the term Intonation which embraces in music, the doctrine of 
intervals, and their exact execution j the words Inflection and Modulation have 
been used by writers, to express only a general and obscure perception of 
some variation of pitch, in the speaking voice. So entirely have they seemed 
to overlook the analogy between the scale of music, and of speech, that the 
English term Intonation, which has been used in the former art, at least a cen- 
tury, to denote the precise recognition of intervals j is not, with this meaning, to 
be found, as far as I can learn, in any of the numberless books on elocution, 
published within this period. I need not say, how often, the description of 
speech, founded on the identity of its intervals with those of music, will here- 
after require the use of this term. 



DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 85 

relates to the science and nomenclature of music, in the follow- 
ing description of speech. When a full knowledge of the modes, 
forms, and uses of the voice will have become familiar, through 
general instruction and practice, the Art of Speaking will seem 
to offer less difficulty, by having an admitted system and no- 
menclature of its own. Now, we are obliged to study another 
art, to make an Art of it. 

In whatever way a pupil may learn or be taught to recognize 
and to execute the intervals of the scale, let me here again call 
his attention to the necessity of making himself familiar with 
a perception of the concrete and discrete movement j when 
formed not only on simple vowel sounds, but on syllables, the 
common ground of intonation in speech. Let the pupil then, 
on any syllable capable of prolongation, rise concretely, from 
the first degree of the scale, to the octave ; and from this, im- 
mediately return concretely to the first degree, while the effect 
of the extent of the rising octave remains upon the ear. In 
like manner, let him ascend and descend through the concrete 
fifth, third, second, and semitone. 

For acquiring familiarity with the discrete intervals of speech, 
the intonation should be performed by means of two syllables. 
Thus, taking the word gaily, let the pupil begin at the first 
degree of the scale, with yai, and by a skip, strike the octave 
with ly : then, in immediate return, while memory of the inter- 
val serves him, take gai at the octave, and descend to the first, 
on ly. In a similar manner, let the voice be exercised on the 
discrete fifth, third, second, and semitone. 

Facility in executing the chromatic movement of speech, is to 
be attained by plaintively repeating the interjection ah, both 
ascending and descending, between the seventh and eighth de- 
grees of the diatonic scale. 

The pupil will acquire a ready command over the tremulous 
intonation, by practising the characteristic tremor of this scale, 
through the semitone with a plaintive expression, and with 
laughter, or exultation, through the other intervals. 

By frequent practice of these several intonations on single 
syllables, the voice will be prepared for the precise use of inter- 
vals, in the syllabic successions of speech. 



86 DIVISIONS AND EXPLANATIONS. 

The preceding explanations have been extended rather beyond 
what is absolutely necessary, for comprehending the proper 
science of Analytic Elocution, now to be first set forth. Thus 
the function of Key and of Modulation in music, has been de- 
scribed with some care, although speech is not constructed 
upon the principles of either. It may not however, be uninte- 
resting to some inquirers, to know wherein the differences of 
the cases consist. 

The term Elocution is applied throughout this work to signify 
the use of the voice, for the representation of thought and pas- 
sion ; and properly includes every form of correct Reading, 
and of Public, and Colloquial Speech. And yet we shall, by 
license, often apply the terms Reading and Speaking, each as 
that of Elocution, to designate the whole of the Art. The 
words Recitation, Delivery, and Declamation, as well as those 
designating public Places, and Professions, are not here techni- 
cally, if at all, employed in reference to vocal character. Styles 
of elocution may differ, within the rule for justly denoting 
passion and thought ; and this rule should direct alike the style 
of the Advocate, the Witness, and the Judge ; of the Pulpit, 
the Stage and the Senate ; of the Stump-orator ; and of the 
varied voices of conversation, Had there been a more abundant 
and precise knowledge, of how language should be spoken, there 
would have been much less said of the Person and the Place. 

If I should employ the term Reading-aloud, it will not be in 
contradistinction to ocular perusal. To read, as a term of 
Elocution, always means to read-aloud. I may however use 
the term Silent Reading, to signify, not ocular perusal 3 but 
the future mental reading of a notation on the staff of speech ; 
in like manner as the notes of music are silently read on the 
staff of song, by the vocalist, and composer ; for I shall endea- 
vor hereafter to show, that a knowledge of the constituents and 
principles of scientific speech, is as attainable 3 and an appli- 
cation of them, as practicable and easy 3 as in the case of sci- 
entific music. I adopt from the old Elocutionist, the term 
' Reading-well,' and preserve it, as a memorial of the style even 
of his school, having generally been so bad, that it became 



THE RADICAL AND VANISHING MOVEMENT. 87 

necessary to distinguish an occasional individual from the herd, 
by his accomplishment in Reading-well. 

I feel how perplexing it is, I was about to say, it is impossible 
by description alone, to render the separate parts of a science, 
so well divided in method yet so closely related in detail, as 
that of music, clearly intelligible. If what has been said, will 
enable the reader to understand the system and particulars of 
the Four Scales, and to execute them, he will not have much 
difficulty in pursuing our further history of a new and beautiful 
Physical Science of the Human Voice. 



SECTION II 

Of the Radical and Vanishing movement of the voice ; and its 
different forms in Speech, Song, and Recitative. 

We have been willing to believe, on faith alone, that Nature 
is wise in the ordination of speech. Let us now show by our 
works of analysis, in what manner, and with what a perfection 
of economy, that cannot surpass itself, she manages the simple 
constituents of the voice, in the production of their unbounded 
combinations.* 

* As I profess, in this work, to draw the history of the human voice, alto- 
gether from observation by the ear, and experiment with the tongue, it will bo 
convenient, and even necessary 3 from the constant reference to the combined 
agencies that make up the system of speech j to have some brief term to 
designate what we imagine to be the directive principle, or general agent over 
these subordinate and perceptible agencies. I have therefore in the text, 
adopted au abstract sign for all these agencies, and their effects j in the word 
Nature ; a word often taken in error, and in vain, but not yet obsolete. This 
Term, this Nature >, I use every where, and always with the same meaning 
when personified, as the representative of an all-sufficient, and ever-present 



88 THE RADICAL AND 

When the letter a, as heard in the word day, is pronounced 
simply as an alphabetic element, without intensity or emotion, 
and as if it were a continuation, not a close of utterance, two 
sounds are heard continuously successive. The first has the 
nominal sound of this letter, and issues with a certain degree 
of fulness. The last is the element e, as heard in eve, gradually 
diminishing to an attenuated close. During the pronunciation, 
the voice rises by the concrete movement through the interval 
of a tone or second ; the beginning of a, and the termination 
of e, being severally the inferior and superior extremes of 
that tone. The character of this concrete rise may be thus 
visibly represented. 




But as a curvature of lines seems to me, to afford a more grace- 
ful analogy to the peculiar effect of this vocal concrete, it will 
throughout this work be represented thusj 




As the above description may not, from the limited extent 
of the concrete, its delicate structure, and momentary duration, 
be at once recognized, I shall endeavor to throw some particular 
light of explanation upon it. 

system of causes ; which in the broad wisdom of its ordination, and universal 
consistency of its effects, is the bright and unchanging example of truth, and 
right, and goodness, and beauty ; and worthy of unceasing study and imita- 
tion 3 for beginning, without delusive hopes, the intellectual, the political, the 
moral, and esthetic refinement of man. 






VANISHING MOVEMENT. 89 

That the sound denoted by the letter a, thus uttered con- 
cretely, has the dipthongal character, will be obvious on delibe- 
rately drawing out this single element, as a question put with 
great surprise. For in this case, its commencement is what I 
have called the nominal a, and its termination in e, at a high 
pitch, is no less distinguishable. 

By the same use of an earnest interrogation, the fulness, or 
greater volume of sound upon a, and the diminishing close in 
e, will be obvious to an attentive ear. Nor is it improbable 3 
the feebleness of this last constituent of a, in ordinary pronun- 
ciation, is at least one cause, why the dipthongal structure of 
this element has never, as far as I know, been perceived, or 
described. 

Now, that a, uttered simply as the head of the alphabet, 
without remarkable expression, and as a continuation, not a 
close of speech j does ascend through the concrete interval of a 
tone, will be manifest to the reader, by his ability to intonate 
the diatonic scale. For let him ascend discretely, by the alter- 
nate use of a and e, prolonging each as a note, and making a 
slight pause between them. This will render him familiar with 
the relationship of the two elements, when heard on the extremes 
of a tone : as illustrated by the following diagram ; where from 



<T^f- 



line to line is one degree, or a tone of the scale ; where the 
oval figure, with its attenuated rising termination, represents 
the level or protracted note, with its final, faint, and rapid con- 
crete issue ; and where the different sizes of the subscribed let- 
ter- may show the proportional duration and volume of voice, 
in the different parts of each impulse of pronunciation. 

Then let him ascend the scale, by a kind of union of the con- 
crete and discrete progressions ; that is, by beginning with a, 
7 



90 



THE RADICAL AND 



slightly prolonged, and proceeding to <?, in the second place, 
without breaking the continuity of sound; and thence after 
slightly prolonging e, passing concretely to a, in the third 
place, as illustrated by the following diagram ; where full notes 
are connected by slender concretes. This practice will make 
him familiar with the effect of a concrete rise through a tone, 
when the upper extreme is rendered remarkable, by the stress 
and prolongation it receives at the second place of the scale. 




-A 



Supposing the concrete interval of a tone to be distinguish- 
able, when thus uttered with a full volume of sound on the two 
extremes a and £, or with what may be called a double stress 
or stress on the two extremes of the concrete 3 it may be proved 
in the following manner, that the simple utterance of a in day, 
passes through the same interval. Let the a and e be repeat- 
edly pronounced with this double stress, united by the weaker 
concrete, till the effect of the interval is for the moment, im- 
pressed upon the ear. Then let the stress on e be gradually 
diminished in the repetition ; as illustrated by the series of 
symbols in the following diagram. The audible effect of the last 
of the series, even with a total cessation of the upper stress, will 




A— E A— e A- 



A-e 



A-e 



VANISHING MOVEMENT. 1»1 

as far as regards intonation, so resemble, yet famtlj, the double 
stress on the first, that the cases will be admitted as identical. 
Since then the tone is plainly cognizable as the first interval of 
the scale, when both extremes receive the stress 3 so in returning 
to the simple pronunciation of a, by gradually diminishing the 
stress at its upper extremity, the perception of this interval 
will be kept up through the progress of the change. In the 
above experiment we have, to suit the order of our history, 
begun with the limited interval of a tone ; but the scholar is 
informed, that merely for proof of the concrete function, it will 
be more obvious to him, on the expressive interval of the fifth 
or octave. 

If there should be a doubt, as to the extent of the con- 
crete interval, let stress be applied at its summit. When 
the interval is a tone, the two sounds will form the commence- 
ment of the diatonic scale ; for with a little experience, the 
course of this scale can always be recognized, in the execution 
of its first and second degrees. 

The simple dipthongal sound of a, without the summit-stress 
does then, as we have illustrated it, pass through the concrete 
interval of a tone ; the movement being divided between the 
sounds of a and e, the first gliding into the last. But as the 
question here refers to the extent of the interval traversed, and 
to its upward direction, as well as to its concrete progress 3 it 
is necessary to utter the literal element, without the least ex- 
pression ; for if it be with plaintiveness, surprise, or interroga- 
tion 3 or as a positive command, or the close of a sentence, the 
concrete will be some other interval than the tone ; this tone or 
second, being, as will be shown hereafter, the instinctive into- 
nation for simple thought, exclusively of passion. 

The peculiar structure of this movement suggested the division 
of it by terms, into two parts ; and the use of these terms, for 
explanatory purposes in the following history, will show their 
propriety. 

I have called the first part of the concrete, or that of ". in 
the above instance, the Radical movement ; since, with a Cull 



92 THE RADICAL AND 

beginning or opening, the final portion of the concrete pro- 
ceeds from it as from a base or root. 

I have called the last part, or that of e, in the example, the 
Vanishing movement, from its becoming gradually weaker as it 
rises, and finally dying away in the upper extreme of the tone. 

It must strike the reader, that the above terms can have 
only a general reference to the two extremes of the concrete 3 
since the gradual change of the radical into the vanish prevents 
our assigning an exact point of distinction between them. 

When a single vowel sound, capable of prolongation, is 
uttered with propriety and smoothness, and without emotion, it 
commences full and somewhat abruptly, and gradually decreases 
in its upward movement, until it becomes inaudible ; having the 
increments of time, and rise, and the decrements of fulness, 
equably progressive. That is, supposing a gradual diminution 
of fulness, in the gradual rise through a tone to be effected in 
a given time 3 one half or smaller fraction of that rise and 
diminution will be effected in one half or smaller fraction of 
that time. Let us call this form of the radical and vanishing 
movement, the Equable Concrete. 

The varied forms of the vocal function in Song and Recita- 
tive, may illustrate the character of this equability in the into- 
nation of speech. 

The long-drawn voice of one continued pitch, heard in song 
and recitative, is produced in two ways. 

First ; by giving a greater proportion of time and volume 
to one continuous and level line of sound, in the radical place ; 
and by subsequently rising concretely, lightly, and rapidly 
through the superior portion of the interval. Let us call 
this, the Protracted Radical. 

Second ; by rising concretely, lightly, and rapidly through 
the inferior portion of the interval, and then prolonging 
the voice with greater volume, on a level line at the highest 
point of the vanish. Let us call this, the Protracted Vanish. 

Thus far, intonation exhibits three modifications of the radi- 
cal and vanishing movement : The Equable Concrete of speech. 
The Protracted Radical, and the Protracted Vanish 3 both of 



VANISHING MOVEMENT. 

which are used in song and recitative. "We shall learn, as we 
proceed, the various relationships of the concrete to all the 
simple and compounded intervals, to the alphabetic elements, 
to time, and to force. 

I have spoken of the radical and vanishing movement through 
a tone, to explain by that interval, the formation of the con- 
crete rise, and its threefold division. But in taking a wider 
survey of the subject, we shall learn j the radical and vanish is 
made on every other interval. 

Thus, when we ascend concretely, from the seventh to the 
eighth degree of the scale, by a and e, as represented in the 
second diagram on the ninetieth page, that is, by laying a 
stress on the two extremes of this interval 3 the voice has a 
plaintive character, very different from that of the tone, or 
interval between the first and second. Now the interval from 
the seventh to the eighth place of the diatonic scale, is a semi- 
tone. This plaintive concrete therefore, when attenuated, and 
made equable by gradually diminishing the stress at its upper 
extreme, as shown in the successive symbols of that diagram 5 
is the radical and vanishing or equable concrete movement of 
a semitone. 

Again, in ascending concretely upon a and e, from the first 
to the third place of the scale, with a stress on e, in that third 
place, the effect of this continuous movement differs from that 
of the tone, and the semitone ; for it resembles a moderate 
degree of interrogation on the element a. This concrete, when 
attenuated or made equable, by diminishing the stress gradually 
to its upper extreme, is the radical and vanishing or equable 
concrete movement of a third. 

By a process analogous to that just proposed, for distin- 
guishing the interval of a third, we may ascertain the concrete 
movement of a fifth, and of an octave ; for these, with stress at 
their upper extremes, have earnest interrogative expressions. 
Then by diminishing the stress, as directed in the former eases, 
we have respectively, the equable radical and vanishing move- 
ments of the fifth and octave. 

In this manner, the ear perceives in their varied characters, 



94 THE RADICAL AND 

the several vocal movements of an equable Rising radical and 
vanishing semitone, tone or second, of a major third, a fifth, 
and an octave. These intervals have their proper significa- 
tions in the expression of speech, and will be particularly 
noticed elsewhere. 

The above description represents the Concrete rise of the 
several intervals. But the Discrete scale is likewise used in 
speech ; and its skipping intervals are, perhaps, as readily dis- 
tinguishable as the gliding intervals of the concrete scale. 
When therefore we are able to ascend the discrete steps of the 
diatonic scale, in proximate succession, and to recognize its 
wider intervals, we have only to mark, by some vowel-sound, 
the first and second, and the seventh and eighth degrees of the 
scale, and thus to form respectively the discrete rising tone or 
second, and the semitone. In like manner by skipping through 
the other intervals, we shall have a discrete rising third, fifth, 
and octave. 

Let us consider another condition of the radical and vanish. 
We have viewed the concrete of the voice only in its rising 
progress. There is a similar glide in a downward direction 
through all the intervals of the scale. In this downward form 
of the concrete, we take the scale numerically, as in its upward 
course ; the like number of degrees constituting intervals of the 
same name, in each direction. For this descending progress, 
music employs the terms, a second, third, fifth, and octave, 
below ; whereas, for the intonations of speech, I shall use the 
adjective-term downward, or descending, or falling, to denote 
this direction on the scale. Referring then to our former 
experiments, if the bow be drawn while the finger is moving 
continuously, from the eighth place on the string to any dis- 
tance downward, it will produce a concrete descending sound. 
In this way, the falling concrete will have all the properties of 
the rising radical and vanish, with this difference onlyj the 
radical, if it may now be so called, is here at the summit of the 
interval, while the vanish equably diminishes to its lower 
extreme. To render the extent of a downward interval per- 
ceptible, let the stress be applied to its vanish, and then in 



VANISHING MOVEMENT. 95 

repetition gradually diminished, as illustrated by the second 
diagram, on the ninetieth page, when taken in an inverted 
position, from right to left. Thus exemplified, the move- 
ment from a, at the eighth degree of the scale, to e, in 
the seventh, will give the downward equable concrete semi- 
tone ; from the second to the first, the downward equable 
tone ; and in this manner, a descent from the third, fifth, and 
eighth degree, respectively to the first, will give the downward 
radical and vanishing or equable concrete third, fifth, and 
octave. 

The downward movement is likewise made in the discrete 
progression. This may be readily heard on the Piano, and 
other instruments with a scale of fixed degrees $ by striking in 
succession, the extreme notes of the required interval ; and in 
the voice, by a unison-imitation of these instrumental sounds, 
upon vowels or syllables j thereby exemplifying a downward 
discrete octave, fifth, third, second, and semitone. 

He who is acquainted with the musical scale, but has not yet 
considered it with reference to speech, may ascertain the 
upivard course of the tone and of the semitone, on a vowel, by 
comparing their effects respectively with those of the first and 
last interval of the rising scale. In like manner, he may know the 
the doivnward course of the semitone and of the tone, by com- 
paring them respectively with the first and the last interval of 
the descending scale. Every one knows a plaintive expression in 
speech ; it is easy therefore to recognize a semitone. And 
perhaps there is not too much confidence in asserting, that 
before the attentive and competent reader has finished this 
essay, he will have no more difficulty in discriminating every 
other important interval of the rising and falling scale. 

I say nothing here of a radical and vanishing fourth, sixth, 
and seventh ; nor of wider ranges than the octave; nor of the 
discrete movement of these intervals; not that the voice in an 
upward and a downward course does not use them, but that a 
reference to the third, fifth, and octave, is sufficiently precise 
for the purpose of our history. 

Besides the above-described forms of the concrete and dis- 



96 THE RADICAL AND 

Crete movements, both in an upward and downward direction, 
there is a continuous course of the rising into the falling con- 
crete 3 and reversely, a continuity of the falling into the rising. 
This form of the radical and vanish will be particularly noticed 
hereafter under the name of the Wave. We will call it Direct, 
when the first interval ascends, and the second descends ; 
Inverted, when this order of the intervals is reversed ; Equal, 
when the rising and the falling are in extent the same ; and 
Unequal, when different. It is called Single, when two inter- 
vals only are thus joined : Double when another is subjoined to 
the second of the single form : and Continued, when its line of 
flexures exceed the double. The wave is made through all the 
intervals of the scale ; and its different forms may be variously 
united with each other. Thus it may be double-direct, unequal 
direct, double-unequal, and in short, its intervals may be in all 
possible combinations. 

But I have not yet finished the preparatory explanations. 
The simple radical and vanish, may on the course of its 
rise and of its fall, receive a Fulness or Force, under the 
six following forms. First. The radical of the equable move- 
ment is, as previously shown, distinguished from the rest of the 
concrete, by its initial stress. Second. While the proportion 
of radical to vanish remains unaltered, the whole equable con- 
crete may be magnified as it were, by unusual force. Third. 
The voice may be swelled, on a concrete, or on a wave, to an 
impressive fulness, at the middle of its course. Fourth. There 
may be an unusual stress at each extremity of the concrete. 
Fifth. While the radical is reduced in fulness, the vanishing 
extremity may have a forcible termination. Sixth. The con- 
crete or the wave may have the fulness and force of the radical 
throughout its whole extent. 

As we shall have frequent occasion to discriminate between 

all the forms of the concrete, I may, as above, employ the 

term simple concrete, to distinguish it from the wave, and from 

its several forms, when varied, as we have just shown, by stress. 

The following diagrams may illustrate the various foregoing 






VANISHING MOVEMENT. 97 

descriptions. For this purpose, parts of the musical notation 
are employed. The lines and spaces denote places of pitch ; 
the proximate succession of line and space, being that of a 
second or tone. These lines and spaces differ from the staff of 
the musical system ; the latter being founded on the diatonic 
scale, denotes in certain places, the interval of a semitone ; 
whereas the lines and spaces for the notation of speech signify 
always, the succession of a tone, except otherwise specified. 
The full black symbols on these lines and spaces, with their 
issuing and tapering appendages of various extent, represent 
the opening fulness, direction, and diminution of the radical 
and vanishing movement. The distances between the radicals 
of the concrete seconds, thirds, fifths, and octaves, severally 
represent the discrete intervals. Time is represented as in 
music : the open ellipse signifying the longest ; the small head 
and stem, with its two hooks, to denote the duration of the 
vanish, being the sixteenth part of the open ellipse. Except 
for the protracted radical, and vanish, the notation of Time 
will not be here employed. A use of the measurable relations 
of Time, with the proportional value of its symbols, is indispen- 
sable to the mclodial rythmus, and to the concerted harmonies 
of music. But speech is a solo of the voice, and requires 
no conformity in time with other voices. In this single use, 
the degrees and proportions of Quantity on successive syllables, 
are left to the thought or passion which directs the appropriate 
utterance. Should the future purposes of esthetic speech re- 
quire a notation, the musical or other symbols may without 
much difficulty, be engrafted on those of the equable concrete. 



98 



THE RADICAL AND 



I have not given symbols for the concrete and discrete minor 
third, and semitone, since their representation on the staff may- 
be easily imagined. 



S-, C © 



o ^H 



"S gp. 



o 



St 



IN 

° o H 



/l^ I ^ 1° I o^- 1 ^ 






5 ^^ 



.i ° 



ai ° i3 'Sc 



& g 



W 



s ® 

"V -d 



a ° -d 



g -s 



cr 1 



i -3 

'So JS 

•S3 J3 .S 

^ £ ^ 

cr t? d 
a> a> o3 
a ^ 



a> tJ 



P 3 



i^5 

Sh «m T3 

I- § 

P a> 



jk *»* j 

3 g ~ 

§ I 



; £ 3 



ft. a 3 



^4^j^/tg^2+^ 



Forms of stress on the Concrete. 




In the above notation, there is no meaning in the curve of 
the yanish, except on the wave, nor in the circular enlargement 
of the radical. In this, as formerly remarked, the eye only 



VAXISI1ING MOVEMENT. 99 

was consulted ; though I cannot say, the engraver has in all 
cases, done justice to the drawing furnished.* 

I have thus endeavored to describe, under its various forms, 
an important and delicate function of speech. There is a pecu- 
liarity in the human voice which as far as I have observed, has 
never been copied by instrumental contrivances. The sounds 
of the horn, flute, and musical-glass, may severally equal and 
even surpass in quality a long-drawn, and level vocal note : 
still there is something wanting, that distinguishes their intona- 
tion from that of speech. It is the want of the equable gliding, 
the lessening volume, and the soft extinction of the yet inimi- 
table radical and vanishing movement. 

And further ; the simple utterance of the radical and vanish 
seems to be an instinctive and uncontrolable function of the 
voice : since to my observation, even the very shortest vocal 
impulse on a vowel or syllable, is not, so to speak, a mere 
point of sound without dimensions, but is necessarily made 
upward or downward through some, however rapid movement. 
This remark is true of the voices of many sub-animals. Does 
it apply to all? and even to common mechanical noises? 

In the course of this essay, I shall endeavor to obviate the 
effect of that repetition of its nomenclature, which the purpose 
of explanation and the newness of the subject might require 3 

* On first observing the peculiar character of the radical and vanish^ "when 
my attention was sometimes misled by hasty conclusions, and while doubtfully 
experimenting on the form of melody j I drew, partly after the pattern of a 
musical note, the symbol of the concrete as it still remains. And see, how that 
deceitful thing the mind with its analogies, as we are prone to use them, should 
be watched. Upon the first draft of the illustrations, the graceful lines of a 
Greek scroll were associated with my idea of the gracious impression of the van- 
ishing movement ; and the form thus given to the symbol seems to have subse- 
quently so influenced my perception of the function, that perhaps I am not yet 
quite free from the analogical thought that suggested it. Although aware from 
the first, that the figurative representation of the radical and vanish should be 
by the outline of a spire, still the wedge-like symbol, especially if set obliquely 
on the staff, seemed too awkward a picture of this master j no, this mistreBS- 
principle of the voice. 

I here offer an apology for my departure from correctness in the illustration. 
If I have committed a fault I much regret it ; and thereupon write this note, to 
prevent a false association in the mind of the reader. 



100 THE RADICAL AND VANISHING MOVEMENT. 

by the use of various abbreviated but equivalent terms. Thus 
the Concrete function will, according to the general or specific 
purpose in its use, be variously called the radical and vanishing 
movement ; the concrete movement, progression, interval, or 
pitch ; or simply the radical and vanish, or the concrete ; or 
the radical and vanishing tone, semitone, third, fifth, and 
octave. The Discrete function will be called the discrete move- 
ment, progression, change, skip, or pitch ; or the radical 
movement, change, progression, skip, or pitch. Now each 
of the above phrases may have the specification of rise or 
fall, upward or downward, ascent or descent, according to the 
requisition of the sense, or to any desirable variation of terms. 
Should the direction of the concrete, or of the radical not be 
specified or implied, the term is used for either rise or fall. 
As a general designation of the extent of intervals and waves 3 
all greater than those of the semitone and second will be called 
wide?', to form a better rythmus than wide, in qualifying those 
terms of intonation. 

Let the reader then not be alarmed at the variety of these 
terms ; for at present he need only so far regard them, as to 
be able to refer to them, if he should hereafter find it neces- 
sary. As he proceeds, he will perhaps consider them as brief 
expressions suggested so immediately by the subject, that he 
himself might have made them. Indeed, a future wide com- 
panionship in the knowledge of speech, may have a shorter and 
more convenient nomenclature of its own. 

The reader must not be discouraged, by his first difficulty in 
discriminating the intervals of speech. There was much to 
perplex and to threaten with despair, in the course of observa- 
tion by which these intervals were first measured and described. 
Yet even these now palpable phenomena were not perceived at 
a moment, as perhaps they might be, under a simple and real 
education of the senses and of thought. For the mirror of the 
mind obscured and distorted in its imagery, by a habitual occu- 
pation with little else than Fiction-; and Argument, too often 
the provocative of fiction 3 is not prepared to reflect the real- 
ities of nature without dimness or delay. The first perceptions 



ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 101 

by the author of this essay were full of indistinctness and doubt ; 
far greater perhaps, than the intelligent reader may experience 
from the descriptions in this section. Yet after three years' 
familiarity with the different intervals of intonation, their vari- 
ous degrees w r ere much more perceptible to him, than the 
discrimination of colors without direct comparison ; and quite 
as distinguishable by their effect upon the ear in deliberate 
utterance, as the quality, time, and force of the syllabic sound 
in discourse. 



SECTION III. 

Of the Elementary Sounds of the English Language ; tenth their 
Relations to the Radical and Vanishing Movement. 

The term Element is applied to the most simple form of the 
articulate voice ; and is not otherwise used in this Essay. The 
element as a sound addressed to the ear, is to be distinguished 
from its visible symbol or letter ; though it is sometimes speci- 
fied as an alphabetic element. 

The radical and vanishing concrete, under all its forms, is 
employed on a limited number of these elementary sounds, said 
by some writers, whom I here follow, to amount in the English 
language, to thirty-five. It seems useless to raise a distracting 
question on the subject of the kind and number of the elements. 
As long as the human mind prefers contention, to practical 
agreement, there will perhaps be refinements and differences on 
this point. The thirty-five here assumed, afford all the distinc- 
tions required for the uses of this work. And they have been 
found sufficient for practical purposes, by those who have no 
time nor fondness for dispute.* 

* English philologists have, according to their real or affected nicety of ear, 
differed on the subject of the number of the elements in our language. The 
differences refer to the character of the sounds, or to the time, or manner of 



102 ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 

An alphabet should consist of a separate symbol for every 
elementary sound. Under this view, the deficiencies, redun- 
dancies, and confusion of the system of alphabetic characters 
in the English language, prevent the adoption of its common 
grammatical subdivisions here. 

The sounds of the alphabetic elements are the material, and 
their combination into significant words, the formal causes of 
all language. It appears to me however, that a classification, 
according to their instrumentality in other phenomena of 
speech, besides that of its articulation, would be practically 
useful as well as logically just. Now, as Intonation is an 
important mode of speech, the arrangement of the elements if 
practically regarded, should have some reference to it. In the 
present section therefore, these elements will be described and 
classed, according to their use in intonation.* 

pronouncing them. Thus the sound of a in all, and of o in occupy have been 
enumerated as different. But that difference seems to consist in the abrupt 
utterance of oc, or the suddenness with which the sound breaks from the organs. 
A like distinction has been made between o in ooze, and u in bwll ; where the 
explosive accent seems to give the perceptible difference to the short vowel. 
Now this abruptness of voice is a generic function, or mode, applicable to all 
vowels, and therefore not a ground for specific distinction. It is however, of 
little practical consequence, whether cases like these are decided one way or 
the other. 

* I set aside, in this place at least, the sacred division into vowels, conso- 
nants, mutes and semivowels. The complete history of nature will consist of a 
full description of all the interchangeable relationships, not of notions after 
the metaphysical manner, but of perceptible things. We received the classifi- 
cation of the elements from Greek and Roman grammarians : and their division, 
according to organic causes, into labial, lingual, dental, and nasal, is now 
strictly a part of the physiology of speech. But whatever reason, connected 
with the vocal habits of another nation, or the etymologies of another tongue, 
may have justified the division into vowels and consonants according to their 
definition, it does not exist with us. Without designing to overlook or destroy 
arrangements, truly representing the relationships of these sounds, it is only 
intended in this essay to add to their history a division, grounded on their 
important functions in intonation. The strictness of philosophy should not be 
so far forgotten, as to suffer the claim of this classification to be exclusive. 
Let it remain as only a constituent portion, of new and wider prospects, yet to 
be opened in the art. 

Passing by other assailable points of our immemorial system, the contra-dis- 



ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 103 

As the number of elementary sounds in the English language 
exceeds that of the literal symbols, and as some of these symbols, 
especially those of the vowels, are made to represent various 
sounds, without a rule for discrimination 3 I shall endeavor to 
supply this want of precision, by using short words of known 
pronunciation, containing the elementary sounds with the let- 
ters that represent them, marked in italics ; which the reader 
may thus exemplify to himself. 

Let him begin to utter the word, all ; but the moment the 
sound of a is completed, let him pause ; and that initial sound 
gives one of the elementary sounds of a. In a like experiment 
with other initial vowels of selected examples, he will hear the 
precise sounds of the other vowel elements. Again, for the 
consonants. In the word, bee, let him pause after the obscure 
* guttural murmur,' of its first sound, and he will hear the ele- 
ment represented by the letter b. 

Or, otherwise : let him, in the instance of both vowel and 
consonant, prolong unusually the first element, before joining 
it to those that follow ; and the single elementary vowel, and 
the single elementary consonant will be respectively heard in 
that prolongation. 

The thirty-five Elements are now to be considered under 
their relationships to the radical and vanish. And as the pro- 
perties of this function are, prolongation of sound, and variation 

tinction of its two leading divisions is a misrepresentation. Had he an ear 
who said, and believed 3 a consonant cannot be sounded without the help of a 
vowel ? 

Among the thousand mismanagements of literary instruction, there is at the 
outset in the horn-book, a pretence to represent elementary sounds, by syllables 
composed of two or more elements, asj Be, Kay, Zed, double U, and Aitch. 
These words are used in infancy and through life, as simple elements in the 
process of synthetic spelling. But no error or oversight of the school should 
ever make us forget the realities of nature. 

Any pronouncing dictionary shows, that consonants alone may form syllables : 
and if they have never been appropriated to words which might stand solitary 
in a sentence, like the vowels a, i, 0, ah, and awe, it is not that they oannot 
be so used ; but because they have not that full and manageable quality ■which 
exhibits the quantity, force, and intonation of an unconnected clement, with 
sufficient emphasis and with agreeable effect 



104 ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 

of concrete pitch, with initial force and final feebleness 3 these 
elements should be regarded in their varied capacity for the 
display of these properties. 

With this view, our elements of articulation may be arranged 
under three general heads. 

The first division embraces sounds with the radical and 
vanish in its most perfect form. They are twelve in number ; 
and are heard in the usual sound of the separated italics, in the 
following words : 

A-l\, a-i% cm, a-le, ou-t, isle, o-ld, ee-l, oo-ze, e-rr, 
e-nd, and z'-n. 

From their being the purest and most manageable means for 
intonation, I have called them Tonic sounds, 

They consist of different sorts of Vocality$ or of that quality 
of voice in which we usually speak, and here contradistinguished 
from whisper or aspiration. They are produced by the joint 
functions of the larynx, fauces, and parts of the internal and 
external mouth. 

The tonics 3 pronouncing the 0, as in o-r-> are of a more 
tunable quality than the other elements. They are capable of 
indefinite prolongation ; admit of the concrete and tremulous 
rise and fall, through all the intervals of pitch ; may be uttered 
more forcibly than the other elements, as well as with more 
abruptness ; and while these last two characteristics are appro- 
priate to the fulness and stress of the radical -j the attenuative 
prolongation, on their pure and controlable quality, is finely 
accommodated to the vanishing movement. Universally, they 
have, for the purposes of an agreeable intonation, a eutony, 
briefly so to call it, beyond the other elements. 

The second division includes a number of sounds, possessing 
variously among themselves, a character similar to that of the 
tonics ; but differing in degree. They amount to fourteen ; 
and are marked by the sound of the separated italics, in the 
following words : 

B-ow, cZ-are, g-ive, v-ile, 2-one, y-e, iv-o, th-en, a-2-ure, 
si-rig, Z-ove, m-ay, n-ot, r-oe. 

From their inferiority to the tonics, for all the emphatic and 



ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 105 

elegant purposes of speech, while they admit of being intonated 
or carried concretely through the intervals of the scale, I 
have called them Subtonic sounds. 

They all have a vocality ; though in some it is combined with 
aspiration. B, d, g, ng, I, m, n, r, have an unmixed vocal- 
ity ; v, z, y, w, th, zh, have an aspiration joined with theirs. 
We have learned that the vocality of the tonics is in each, pecu- 
liar. The vocality of some of the subtonics is apparently the 
same ; and among all, it does not greatly differ ; resembling 
that of certain five of the tonics, to be described presently. 
Like the vocality of the tonics, it is formed in the larynx ; but 
the sound in its outward course may have a modifying rever- 
beration in the fauces, the mouth, and the cavities of the nose. 
A few subtonic vocalities are purely nasal, as 3 m, n, ng, b, 
d, g. Others are purely oral. The nasal are soon silenced by 
closing the nostrils ; the rest are not materially affected by it. 
The vocality of b, d, and g, may not be immediately per- 
ceived by those who have not, by practice on the separate ele- 
ments, attained the full command of pronunciation. Writers 
have spoken of the vocality of these elements, under the name 
of ' guttural murmur, ' and have regarded it as a peculiar sound. 
It is the vocality, heard in v, th-en, z, zh, and r, modified 
into the respective articulation of b, d and g. The vocality 
of b, d and g, in ordinary speech has less duration and 
intensity, and is consequently less perceptible than that of 
v, th-en, z, zh, and r, but is the same in kind. It is the 
vocality alone of b, that distinguishes it from p. 

I have enumerated y and w, as the initial sounds of ye and 
wo ; since y is a vocality like that of the other subtonics, mixed 
with an aspiration over the tongue, when near the roof of the 
mouth 3 and iv a similar vocality, mixed with a breathing 
through an aperture in the protruded lips. As b, d, g and zh 
are made by joining vocalities instead of aspirations, with the 
organic positions of p, t, k, and sh ; so y and w are seve- 
rally the mixture of vocality with the pure aspiration of h, as 
heard in he, and of tvh, as heard in zvh-irYd. The substitu- 



106 ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 

tion of vocality for aspiration changes these words respectively 
to ye and world. 

This vocality of the subtonics, either pure or mixed, nasal or 
oral, is variously modified by the nose, tongue, teeth and lips. 
An entire or partial obstruction of the current of breath through 
the mouth, and a subsequent removal of the obstruction, pro- 
duces the peculiar sound of the subtonics : for, on pronouncing 
h, d, and g, and it is the same with all, the voice breaks from 
its obstruction with a short and feeble terminative impulse. Now 
it is in the momentary terminative portion of subtonic sound, 
heard on removing this obstruction, that the character of the 
vocality, in some of these elements, may be most readily per- 
ceived. This vocula or little voice, if it may be so called, has 
been noticed by writers, as necessary to complete the utterance 
of the class of Mutes ; but it may be heard more or less con- 
spicuously at the termination of all the subtonics. It is least 
perceptible in those, having the most aspiration. In ordinary 
utterance it is short and feeble ; and is most obvious in forcible 
or affected pronunciation. When the subtonics precede the 
tonics, they lose this short and feeble termination, and take in 
its place the full sound of the succeeding tonic j thus producing 
an abrupt opening of the tonic. 

I have called this last-vented sound of the subtonics, the 
Vdcuhj pronouncing o, as in o-r j and have been thus particu- 
lar in noticing and naming it, as both the function and the 
term will be referred to, in treating on Syllabication, and on 
Expression. 

The five tonic sounds, to which the vocalities of the subtonics 
bear a resemblance, are ee-l, e-nd, ^-n, e-rr, and oo-ze. Y-e 
and w-o have respectively something like a nasal echo of ee-\ 
and oo-ze. B, d, g, v, th-en z, zh and r resemble e-rr ; I, 
m, and n have something of the sound of e-nd; and 7ig, of i-n. 

The subtonics are subordinate to the tonics in their character 
and uses. The kind of sound is less agreeable. Compared 
with the clear vocal-fulness of the tonics, their quality is 
obscured in the purest ; and in others, is destroyed by aspira- 
tion. They are severally capable of more or less prolongation, 



ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 107 

and may be carried through the concrete and tremulous varia- 
tion of pitch. None admit of much force in their vocality : 
nor can initial fulness be given to them without extraor- 
dinary effort. These last named insufficiencies prevent the 
subtonics from forming like the tonics, a proper radical abrupt- 
ness on the concrete. When therefore a subtonic precedes a 
tonic, as in the syllable vain, the vocality of v, compared with 
the vocality of a, is so feeble, that with only a common effort 
of utterance, there is an absence of the strong and sudden 
opening of the radical. The subtonic does indeed make a short 
initial to the syllable, and then breaks from its vocule into the 
succeeding tonic. When prolonged, its tendency is to con- 
tinue on one line of pitch until the tonic a opens from the 
vocality of v, with the true character of the radical. It must 
not from this, be concluded j the subtonics can in nowise form 
the opening of a syllable ; for all of them when separately 
uttered, may be carried concretely, through every interval ; 
and even preceding a tonic a strenuous effort may give them 
somewhat of the radical fulness, but cannot make them abrupt. 
In ordinary pronunciation, they are scarcely appreciated as a 
part of the initial concrete. 

This want of force and abruptness in a subtonic, does not 
prevent it from fulfilling the purpose of the vanish, when it 
succeeds a tonic. Thus in the syllable vain $ after the short 
and feeble sound of v, the a, as we have said, begins the radi- 
cal, and after rising through a portion of the interval, glides 
into the subtonic w, which carries on and completes the vanish. 
This coalescence seems to be the result of the tonics having no 
final occlusion, and consequently no vocule. 

The remaining nine elements, forming the third division, are 
Aspirations, and have not that kind of sound called vocality. 
They are produced by a current of whispering breath through 
certain internal and external parts of the mouth. They are 
heard in the sound of the separated italic, in the words : 

U-/>, ou-t, ar-&, i-/, ye-s, h-c, rf-eat, th-'m, pu-*A. 

From their limited power of variation in pitch, even when 
uttered singly with the designed effort to produce it, and from 



108 ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 

their supplying no part of the concrete when breathed among 
the tonic and subtonic constituents of syllables, I have called 
them Atonic sounds. 

On comparing their articulative production with that of some 
of the subtonics, we find them, respectively, almost identical in 
all their conditions except that of vocality, which is wanting in 
the atonies. 

B. D. G. V. Z. Y. W. Th. Zh. Ng. L. M. N. Jfc. 

I I I I I I I I I 
P. T. K. F. S. H. Wh. Th. Sh. 

Though this whispering imitation is not made on all the sub- 
tonics j the five exceptions do not altogether destroy the idea, 
that nature has her ' formative effort ' towards a general rule of 
duplicature in these creations. The m, n, and ng are purely 
nasal ; and when their vocality is dropped, the attempt to utter 
them by the mere breathing of the atonies, produces in each 
case similar snuffling aspirations. Yet even this snuffling, 
though no reputed element of speech, is used before the vocality 
of n, m, or ng y as the inarticulate sign of sneer. The two 
remaining subtonics I and r, are in perfect English speech, 
unmatched by atonies. But an aspirated copy of I, produced 
by a kind of hissing over the moisture of the tongue, is occa- 
sionally heard : and a true atonic parallel to r, in what is called 
the ■ Northumbrian burr,' is in Britain, not an uncommon defect 
of utterance.* 

The Atonies, from the unfitness for intonation that suggested 
their name, afford no vocal means for the radical and vanish. 
Most of them have a perceptible vocule, consisting of a short 
aspiration like the whispering of e-rr. There is no tunable 
quality whatever in their sound. They have the power of pro- 
longation, but on a poor material : and though inferior in most 
of the purposes of speech, to the other elements j it will be 
shown in treating of Expression, that the Aspiration is both 
significative, and emphatic. 

* Bishop Wilkins, in his ' Essay towards a real character,' has enumerated 
the aspirated I and r, among the provincial vices of speech, and has allotted 
literal symbols to them. 



ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 109 

The enumeration under the preceding divisions, includes all 
the elementary sounds of the English language, that apart from 
questionable and unimportant refinements, have been noticed by 
observant authors. 

Three of the subtonics, 5, d, and g, and three of the aton- 
ies, Jc, p, and t, when uttered before a tonic have eminently 
an explosive character ; the subtonic bursting into the tonic 
from its occlusion. They have peculiar purposes in speech, 
and being distinguished as a subdivision, may be called Abrupt 
elements. At the beginning of a syllable they produce a sud- 
den opening of the succeeding tonic ; and at the end, they 
exhibit a final vocule. The effect of these abrupt elements in 
the art of speaking, will be shown in treating of Expression. 

The foregoing arrangement of the elementary sounds was 
devised, to give a general view of their respective relationships 
to intonation. For a further development of this subject, I 
now describe particularly, the structure and functions of the 
Tonics. 

In illustrating the character of the radical and vanishing 
movement, it was shown that the tonic a-\e, uttered in the man- 
ner then directed, rises with its two kinds of sound, through 
the interval of a tone or wider interval ; the radical beginning 
on a, and the vanish diminishing to a close on e. Now as all 
the tonic sounds necessarily pass through the radical and 
vanish, they demand an analysis relatively to it. 

These seven of the tonic elements 3 

#-we, a-rt, a-n, a-\e, isle, o-ld, ou-r, 

have respectively, different sounds at their two extremes. 
The remaining five 3 

ee-\, 00-ze, e-rr, e-nd, z-n, 

have each, one unaltered sound throughout their concrete. 

The tonics may therefore be properly divided into Dipthongs 
and Monothongs. 

The dipthong, a-we has for its radical, the nominal sound of 



110 ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS, 

a, in tf-we ; for its vanish, a short and obscure sound of the 
monothong e-rr. 

A-rt has for its radical the nominal sound of a, in a-rt ; its 
vanish like that of the preceding, being the short and obscure 
sound of e-rr. 

The radical of a-n is the nominal sound of a, in a-n. Its 
vanish is the same in degree and kind as the last. 

The sound of each of these elements has heretofore been con- 
sidered homogeneous throughout ; for their vanish being feeble 
in ordinary utterance, it has escaped perception. But in earnest 
and prolonged interrogation, these dipthongs will severally 
terminate at a high pitch, in a faint sound of e-vr. 

A-le, as shown formerly has its radical, with the distinct 
sound of the monothong ee-l for its vanishing movement. 

Isle has its radical, followed in like manner by a vanish of 
the monothong ee-l. The dipthongal character of i, has long been 
known, and the discovery of it is attributed to Wallis the gram- 
marian. It is described by Sheridan and others, as consisting 
of $-we and ee-l ; the coalescence of the two producing the 
peculiar sound of i. In this account, it is admitted that the 
element is peculiar ; there is therefore no need of reference 
to a-we, in the theory of its causation. A skilful ear will 
readily perceive ^ the radical of z'-sle is a peculiar tonic, and 
ascribe it to a peculiar mechanism of its own. 

O-ld has its radical in the sound of o, formerly supposed to 
be homogeneous. Its vanish is the distinctly audible sound of 
the monothong oo-ze. 

Ou-r has a radical, followed in like manner by a vanish of the 
monothong oo-ze. That the first sound of this dipthongal tonic 
is not a-we, but a radical of its own, may easily be proved to a 
discriminating ear ; for it will be learned by experiment, that 
a-we does not unite with oo-ze, by the easy gliding transition 
heard in the junction of the true radical of ou-r with the same 
oo-ze. 

I have been at a loss what to say of the sound signified by oi 
and oy, as in voice and boy. It may be looked upon as a dip- 
thongal tonic, consisting of the radical a-we, and of- the vanish- 



ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. Ill 

ing monothong z-n, when the quantity of the element is short, 
and of ee-\ when long. But from the habit of the voice, it is 
difficult to give «-we without adding its usual vanish e-rr ; and 
this makes the compound a tripthong. If taken as a dipthongal 
tonic, this is the only instance in which the same radical has two 
different vanishes. And though this reason should not be con- 
clusive against its classification, it suggests an examination of 
the subject. In case this sound should be considered as a true 
dipthongal tonic, and analogies seem in favor of it, the number 
of tonics would be thirteen, and the whole of the elements 
thirty-six. 

The seven radical sounds with their vanishes thus described, 
include as far as I observe, all the elementary dipthongs of the 
English language. In the common scholastic definition, the 
terms dipthong and tripthong mean a combination of two or 
three visible letter s, not a fluent union of phonetic elements. 
According to the foregoing history, and under our view, the 
term dipthong denotes the transition of the voice from one tonic 
sound to another ; forming thus the impulse of one syllable, by 
a continued gliding, without a conscious change of organic effort, 
in the transition. By the term elementary, applied to a dip- 
thong, I mean to point out the inseparable bond of its constitu- 
ents ; the ordination or the habit, whichever it may be, of the 
voice, having so decreed the series of the two sounds, that the 
first or radical cannot be uttered without terminating in the 
second or vanish. 

The remaining five tonics are monothongs, and have one kind 
of sound for both the radical and vanishing movements. They 
are 3 

00-ze, 60-1, e-rr, e-nd, i-n. 

The element 66-1 deliberately uttered as a question with 
earnest surprise, has the same unvaried sound from the radical 
outset, to the end of its vanish. One of the forms of interro- 
gation will be shown hereafter, to be the interval of a radical 
and vanishing octave ; and the same homogeneous course of 66-1 
may be heard through the fifth, third, tone, and semitone. 



112 ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 

This manner of displaying the course of the unchanged concrete 
in ee-\, will show the like uniformity of sound, in each of the 
other monothongs, with the exception of i-n. This element has 
its distinct and proper sound, only in short syllables ; and by 
prolongation, is changed into ee-\. We leave others to consider 
it, if they please, as a short and abrupt utterance of ee-\. 

The difference between these two classes of tonics, as here 
described, may be otherwise shown. We learned in the last 
section, the distinction between the equable concrete of speech, 
and the protracted radical and protracted vanish of song. When 
the dipthongs are sung with a protracted vanish, the voice 
quickly leaves the radical, and dwells in a continued note on 
the different sound of the vanish. The protracted note, in the 
vanish of a monothong, is the same in sound as the radical. 

Another illustration of the real dipthongal character of seven 
of the tonics, may be drawn from the phenomena of rhyme. 
Rhyme is a well known relationship in the sound of syllables 3 
consisting in most cases, of a difference between the first ele- 
mental sound of each of the compared syllables, with an identity 
between all the subsequent elemental sounds, each to each ; the 
agreeable effect of rhyme depending chiefly on the particular 
relations of the tonic sounds. The first, is the relation of tonics 
thoroughly identical as 3 dame, came. The second, of tonics 
with a different radical, but the same vanishing movement, as 3 
cars, wars. The third, of tonics differing both in their radicals 
and vanishes, yet of nearest resemblance in their quality of 
sound, asj good, blood. 

The use of the second kind of rhyme shows the composition of 
the dipthongal tonics. In the following lines, the correspon- 
dence of, oo-ze, in doom, with o-ld, in home; and of a-le, in 
obey, with ee-\, in tea, is admitted as canonical, from an iden- 
tity of the vanishes of a-le and 0-ld, respectively with the 
monothongs ee-\ and oo-ze. 

Here Britain's statesmen oft the fall foredoom 
Of foreign tyrants, and of nymphs at home; 
Here thou, great Anna ! whom three realms obey, 
Dost sometimes counsel take 3 and sometimes tea. 






ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 113 

The assimilation of the sounds of a-\e and ee-1, by the 
identity of their vanishes, in the four following rhymes $ together 
with an inflexible prosaic rythmus, in the last couplet, produces 
the monotony and the want of elegance throughout the example. 

Swift to the Lock a thousand sprites repair, 
A thousand wings, by turns, blow back the hair ; 
And thrice they twitch'd the diamond in her ear ; 
Thrice she looked back, and thrice the foe drew near. 

Besides the differences arising from singleness of sound, and 
from dipthongal combination, the tonics exhibit a variety in time 
both when uttered separately, and in syllabic association. Two 
general divisions may be made. 

A-we, a-rt, a-n, a-le, ee-l, z-sle, 0-ur, oo-ze, may be called 
long, and 3 

e-rr, e-nd, z-n, 
short tonics. It is not to be understood 3 the latter may not by 
designed effort be made as long as the former : they have their 
places in this arrangement, from their usual time in English 
syllables. By prolongation, z'-n changes nearly if not entirely 
into ee-\ : and as it thus seems to owe its character in short 
pronunciation, to its abruptness, it might be merged in ee-\, 
and rejected as a distinct element. When the long tonics are 
combined with other elements into syllables, their time is of 
every distinguishable degree, from a momentary impulse to the 
longest passionate utterance of an interjection, as j from o-tt, to 
a-we, from ou-t to h-ow, from a-t to a-h ! from a-te to h-ay, 
ip-ea-t to ee-\, f-oo-t to oo-ze, c-a-rt to a-rms, k-i-te to 2-sle. 

The time of the short tonics in combination, has much less 
variety. But however rapidly any of the tonics may be pro- 
nounced, they do even in their least duration, still pass through 
the concrete movement. 

All the elements except the abrupt atonies Jc, p, f, have a 
variety in duration. The vocality of the subtonics affords the 
means of their time, and its prolongation is next in importance 
to that of the tonics, for the purposes of correct and elegant 
speech. 



114 ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 

Should it be asked 3 why the dip thongs are here designated 
as elementary, when each may be resolved into greater sim- 
plicity, it may be answered 3 the dip thongs, though compounded 
of different successive sounds, yet these are inseparable in 
utterance : and regarding an element as a single impulse of the 
voice, the dipthong must be classed with it. I cannot pro- 
nounce the radical of a dipthong without in some manner, 
giving also its vanish. The radical may indeed be indefinitely 
sustained on its level line of pitch, and we may attempt to cut 
it off by a sudden occlusion of the voice ; still it can be termi- 
nated only by a glide through the vanish, which, however quick, 
or feeble, or varied by aspiration or otherwise, from its proper 
sound, may still be heard. In the equable concrete of speech, 
the rapid pronunciation of a dipthong, and the feebleness of its 
vanish, may diminish the audibility of this second sound 3 yet to 
an attentive ear it will not be altogether lost. And further, 
not only does the radical of a dipthong demand its own peculiar 
vanish, but it cannot be carried through a given interval without 
sliding into that vanish. For in leading the voice through an 
octave on the dipthong a-we or a-\e$ though its radical may 
by effort be continued up to the seventh of the scale 3 the final 
close on the eighth will unavoidably turn respectively to e-rr 
or ee-l. A similar change takes place on all smaller intervals, 
in an endeavor to make monothongs of the dipthongal radicals. 

If an elementary character should be denied to the dipthongs, 
by regarding them as separable sounds, it would not increase 
the number of simple tonics beyond twelve : for the reader may 
have already remarked 3 the vanishing portions of the dipthongs 
consist exclusively of the monothongs. 

It follows, from what has been said on the indivisible sound 
of the dipthongs, that radicals cannot be united with any other 
vanishes, than those already ordained in the practice of the 
voice : and notwithstanding what has been observed, transcribed, 
and assumed by writers on the subject of the dipthongal union 
of the vowels, the instances here enumerated appear to be all 
belonging to English speech. Other combinations want the 
smooth transition and singleness of syllabic impulse, character- 



ALPHABETIC ELEMENTS. 11-3 

izing a dipthong, and heard perfectly united, only in the double 
sound of the above named seven elementary tonics. 

As the diptliongal tonics are respectively produced by joining 
a monothong to a radical of different sound, and as all the 
possible permutations of their union are not employed, we may 
inquire j if it is within the power of the voice to make a greater 
number of dipthongs than here enumerated, by uniting, seve- 
rally, every monothong with each radical tonic. As there are 
seven radicals and five monothongs, we might upon this scheme, 
have thirty-five dipthongs. It appears however, we have only 
eight, supposing oi to be included : the radical of a-we, as 
stated above, being by this supposition, severally combinable 
with two monothongs, and each of the rest with one. Other 
combinations may be made ; but they have not a fluent transi- 
tion, like those which already belong to the language and have 
their literal symbols. Would these new associations call for a 
management of voice not altogether instinctive, and therefore 
requiring a practice and skill, not yet reached in English speech? 
Have any of these supposed dipthongs been admitted among the 
alphabetic elements of other nations ? And are these unused 
materials of the voice, to be classed with those resources des- 
tined to afford their benefits upon some new intellectual revo- 
lution, and the widening demands of human regeneration j 
when the mind, turned from its corruptions, and restored to 
purity, shall, with an exalted choice, prefer sobriety of thought 
to its intoxication, and cease to love fiction better than truth ? 
In regarding the construction of the dipthongs, we may under 
another view, consider them as proper syllables compounded of 
a tonic and subtonic ; since the monothongs as vanishes to the 
radical tonics, have in some degree the character of subtonics ; 
and since they lose the radical fulness they have when uttered 
alone. The vanish of a-\e is very nearly allied to v/-e, if not 
identical with it ; and the vanish of ou-r bears as near a rela- 
tion to w-o. It will be evident too on trial, that if a radical 
character be given to these vanishes, they will not unite with 
the previous radical into one diptliongal impulse of the voice. 
And may we under this view, ask; if the other monothongs, 



116 



ON SYLLABICATION. 



when modified by subtonic coalescence, might be severally 
joined with our present radicals, and even with one another, 
and thus be formed into new dipthongal syllables. 

In a former part of this section it was said 3 the true elemental 
subtonics are independent sounds ; utterable without the ' help 
of a vowel ' or tonic ; contrary to the common grammatical 
definition of a consonant ; their own obscure vocalities bearing 
respectively, a resemblance to those of the five monothongs. 
Hence some syllables may be formed exclusively by subtonics. 
In the words bidde-n, i-dle, schis-m, ryth-m, rive-n, scru-ple, 
and words of like construction, the last syllable is either purely 
subtonic, or a combination of subtonic and atonic. And though 
these final syllables do go through the radical and vanishing 
movement, they are far inferior in quality, abruptness, eutony 
and force, to the full display of these properties on the tonics. 
The reason why words of this construction are necessarily 
divided into two syllables, will appear in the following section. 






SECTION IV. 

Of the influence of the Radical and Vanishing Movement, in 
the production of the various phenomena of Syllables. 

The foregoing history of elementary sounds and of the radi- 
cal and vanishing movement, will enable us to explain some of 
the phenomena of Syllabication. 

What are the particular functions of the voice that produce 
the characteristics of syllables ? 

What determines their length ? 

Why are syllables limited in length, otherwise than by the 
term of expiration : and what produces their ordinary length, 






ON SYLLABICATION. 117 

when there is no obstruction to the further continuation of the 
sound of tonic and subtonic elements ? 

And finally 5 what prescribes the rule that allows but one 
accent to a syllable ? 

I shall endeavor to answer these questions concisely and in 
their order. 

That elemental sound, or that order of elemental sounds 
called a syllable, is a necessary effect, or accompaniment of the 
radical and vanishing movement ; and every syllable consisting 
of one or more of these sounds, derives its singleness of impulse, 
and its respective length, from certain relations between this 
concrete movement and the various tonic, subtonic, and atonic 
elements. As the reader cannot have from me, vocal exempli- 
fication of this subject j a decision upon the argument contained 
in the following conditions and inferences is left to his own 
experimental inquiry. 

If the radical and vanishing movement of the voice through 
a tone or other interval, is an essential function of a syllable, 
it follows that each of the tonics may by itself, form a syllable : 
since they cannot be pronounced singly, without going through 
the radical and vanish. Now the tonics are employed for mon- 
syllabic words, as in eye, a, awe; for interjective particles j 
as in oh, ah; and for mono-literal syllables, as in a-corn, 
ow-rang, 0-ver, e-vince. 

It follows also from the assumed causation of a syllable, that 
two of the tonics cannot be united into one vocal impulse. For 
each having its own radical and vanish, they must produce two 
separate syllables. Consistently with this, whenever two ele- 
mentary tonics adjoin, they always belong to different syllables 
in pronunciation, as in a-e-rial, o-a-sis, i-o-ta. 

If the radical and vanish alone of the voice makes a syllable 
w r hat it is j it follows that the atonies being incapable of that 
function, cannot make a new and distinct syllabic impulse when 
joined with the tonics. The word speaks exhibits the meaning 
of this inference. For the syllabic concrete is here made on a 
short sound of the tonic ee-\ ; while 8, p, k and s, add to the 
time, but do not destroy the monosyllabic character of that 
word. It is true, the 8 on each extreme is a distinct sound, but 



118 ON SYLLABICATION. 

having no radical and vanish, it has no more the character of a 
syllable than the hissing of a water-jet ; and therefore does not 
interfere with the singleness of impulse. The voice in this 
word is not, indeed so gliding as on a single tonic, which shows 
a syllable in its purest form ; yet this obstruction is very dif- 
ferent from that of the three-fold division, in the word Ohio. 
For when this is pronounced with a radical and vanish on each 
of its tonics, they cannot be contracted into one undivided 
sound. In answer then to the first question 3 It is the con- 
crete, modified by the several elements, that produces the 
characteristics of those impulses called syllables. 

Syllables are of different lengths. Is this an arbitrary vari- 
ation, or is it the unavoidable effect of the concrete function, 
and of the elementary sounds ? 

This question is not asked in reference to prosodial quanti- 
ties ; nor to those emphatic prolongations of voice, that give 
force or solemnity to oratorical expression. It regards 
especially the difference of length in syllables, created by their 
elementary constituents ; for it will be shown that the limit of 
a syllable is determined by the character and arrangement of 
these, within the concrete. 

To render this subject perspicuous, let us take a synthetic 
view of the literal series in words. 

Several of the tonics as shown above, individually and alone 
form words and syllables. These exhibit the syllabic impulse 
of the radical and vanish in its Simple condition ; and their 
length may equal that of the time of expiration ; thus forming 
a few exceptions to the limitation of extent, in all other sylla- 
bles. But elements cannot be combined with a view to lengthen 
a syllable, by the addition of one tonic to another ; for this 
would produce a new and separate impulse. 

A combination of elements, with relation to the length of 
syllables, is made under the following circumstances of their 
character, and position. When to the element a-le the atonic 
/ is prefixed, the syllable fa is formed with the concrete rise on 
a preceded by the atonic aspiration. If to these the atonic s 
should be subjoined, the word fas, (face) will be longer than 



ON SYLLABICATION. 119 

the combined elements / and a ; still the triple compound will 
be one syllable, since it can have only one concrete rise. For 
though these two atonies may be clearly heard as part of the 
length of the syllable, yet being incapable of the concrete func- 
tion, the radical and vanish through the given interval is made 
altogether on a, as if the word consisted of that element alone. 
The addition of atonies to tonics is then the first manner of 
increasing the length of a syllable, without destroying its sin- 
gleness of impulse. 

Further, when to the tonic a] the subtonic I is prefixed, the 
syllable la is longer than a, yet has only one radical and van- 
ish. It was said formerly, that with a subtonic before a tonic, 
the vanish of the subtonic does not occur ; for when the sub- 
tonic is prolonged, it continues on one level line of pitch, till 
its vocule opens into the tonic, which then begins the intended 
interval with its radical, and completes it with its vanish ; but 
in common utterance, the vocule of the subtonic breaks at once 
into the radical of the tonic, which in this case begins as well 
as completes the interval. In the syllable la, I does then begin 
the impulse with its vocality, and immediately, without percep- 
tible rise or prolongation, joins the vocality of a ; a then 
opening, from the vocule of I, with a full emphatic radical, 
rises and vanishes on the e of its upper extreme. If to la the 
subtonic v should be subjoined, the compound lav (lave) will be 
longer than la ; yet its syllabic character will be preserved, by 
the singleness of its radical and vanish. In the pronunciation 
of lav, the intonation of Z and a will be as before, except that 
a, still perfect as a dipthong, will not now rise so high through 
the concrete ; for a subtonic being capable of the gliding con- 
crete, v will in this case join in with a, before a reaches the 
upper limit of the interval, and thus complete the vanish of the 
syllable. The junction of subtonic elements with tonics, is 
therefore a second manner of adding to the length of a sylla- 
ble, without destroying the unity of the radical and vanishing 
concrete. 

Moreover, if the abrupt element t be prefixed to a, the syl- 
lable ta will be but a single impulse. If g be subjoined, the 



120 ON SYLLABICATION. 

word tag will still have only one radical and vanish. In this 
way, two abrupt atonies joined with the short tonics, as in cut, 
pet, tih, produce the shortest syllables in the language ; yet 
here the concrete movement however short, is still performed 3 
the radical of the tonic, opening from the first abrupt element, 
and the vanish being suddenly cut-off, by closing on the last. 
This union of abrupt elements with tonics is a third manner of 
preserving the singleness of impulse in a syllable, under the 
variation of its length. 

The three different sorts of combination described above, 
produce their various lengths, in the manner represented by 
the examples under each head. But none of them can be much 
extended beyond the given instances, while they are restricted 
to the kind of elements employed in their respective cases. 

A fourth manner of combining elements is by a union of all 
the different kinds, in one syllable. To illustrate this, we have 
only to consider, that whenever a subtonic is followed by a 
pause, consequently whenever it is uttered singly, or at the end 
of a syllable j it unavoidably assumes the concrete movement; 
and that the same takes place when a subtonic is followed by 
an atonic, as in this case there is a termination of vocality ; 
which in effect, is equivalent to a pause. In each of the words 
strange, (properly strandzh) and strength, and the imaginary 
syllable sglivzd, there is but one radical and vanishing move- 
ment ; and the singleness of impulse is owing to the peculiar 
arrangement of the different kinds of elements. Each consists 
of seven sounds, and this is perhaps the greatest number, the 
varied character of the elements allows to a syllable, even with 
the best contrived combination. The radical and vanish of 
these syllables is made on ange, eng and ivzed, and the prin- 
ciple of vocal management of the other elements is the same in 
each ; for r and I being subtonics respectively before the tonics 
a-le, e-nd, and z-le, do not take-on the concrete. T being an 
abrupt atonic, adds nothing to the vocality of r, and the pre- 
ceding atonic s, having no concrete function, the three ele- 
ments s, t, and r, in strange, and strength, and the s, g 



ON SYLLABICATION. 121 

and I in the imaginary syllable, slightly lengthen the begin- 
ning of these several words, without destroying the unity of 
their impulses ; while the n, d, and zli, the ng, the v, z, 
and d, which respectively follow the tonics, a, e, and i, take 
up the concrete movement from these tonics, and severally 
complete the vanish of the single syllabic impulse. The final 
atonic th, in strength, only adds to the time of that word, 
without bearing part in the concrete. The constituents in each 
of the above words may be combined into one syllable, in other 
series : but in all cases, the atonies must be on the extremes. 
If otherwise, as in the arrangement rstange, the whole cannot 
be pronounced as one syllable. For the vocality of r, ceasing 
on account of the subsequent atonic s, this r must take on the 
concrete movement, and thus become a syllable. The reader 
may remember, it was said 3 the subtonics are capable of the 
radical and vanish when uttered separately ; and the termina- 
tion of their sound by an atonic, produces this condition. In 
the above combinations, and in such syllables as marl, lorn, 
and bold, the subtonics unite smoothly not only with the radi- 
cal, and with the vanish of a tonic, but they themselves unite, 
in their concrete movement, smoothly with each other. Nor is 
it obvious, why the occlusion of the subtonics should not in this 
last case, interfere with the gliding of the syllabic concrete. 

I have thus endeavored to show, that the various lengths of 
syllables depend on the kind and arrangement of their con- 
stituent elements, in the execution of the radical and vanish. 

The following notation may illustrate the preceding account 
of the structure of syllables. This scheme represents the move- 
ment of a third ; but it is the same in all intervals. The dot- 
ted line denotes the atonic aspiration. The thick black line 
united to the radical denotes a prolonged note of the subtonic, 
when it precedes a tonic, and opens into its radical. It is 
marked as a line, to represent its vocality, and to distinguish it 
from the dotted points of the aspirations. In ordinary utter- 
ance without emphatic expression, this line is of but momentary 
length. The full black radical, with its issuing appendage, 
9 



122 ON SYLLABICATION. 

signifies the tonic alone, or the tonic in combination with a 
vanishing subtonic. 



A-e F-A-e F-A-e-s L-A-e L-A-e-v T-A-e T-A-e-k 

A combination of each of the The double syllabic 

species of elements. impulse by change. 




St — r-eng — th R-r st — andzh 



In this notation, the atonic sounds are represented by the 
dotted lines, in certain places of pitch. As aspirations how- 
ever, their place is in no appreciable relation to the pitch of 
the tonics and subtonics ; and I beg the reader may so under- 
stand the notation, where the atonic symbols are used to show 
the presence of the aspirated voice. 

If the principle of syllabication, does not depend on a restric- 
tion by the concrete, and on the kind and position of the ele- 
ments, here assigned $ a single syllable might contain an indefi- 
nite number of tonic sounds, combined with such other elements 
as have no marked occlusion ; and consequently, the length of 
the syllable would be limited only by the time of expiration ; 
the possibility of which case will be considered presently. But 
from the influence of the radical and vanish, in the common 
aggregates of elementary sounds, the duration of a syllable is 
quickly arrested. There are twelve tonics ; fourteen subtonics ; 
nine atonies ; and six abrupt elements. Twelve of these, the 
nine atonies and the three abrupt subtonics, being productive 
of an interruption to the continuity of the syllabic impulse 3 
the promiscuous mingling of all the elements must give one of 
these, an average position in every third or fourth place among 
the tonics and subtonics, and thereby set a limit to the duration 



ON SYLLABICATION. 123 

of syllabic sound. Sometimes this interruption produces syl- 
lables of two elements only ; and it has never perhaps in the 
English language, allowed any syllable in use, to have more 
than seven. 

The reason why the words strange and strength cannot be 
made longer, without more than ordinary effort is this. Tonic 
elements cannot be added, since no two of them can be united 
into one vocal impulse. Nor will these words bear a subtonic 
at the beginning ; for s being an atonic, any subtonic uttered 
before it must come to a pause, must therefore go through its 
vanish and thus produce a separate syllable. An atonic pre- 
fixed to these words would not indeed make a new concrete, but 
would produce a varying effort of hissing and aspiration, bear- 
ing no resemblance to the easy gliding of tonic and subtonic 
syllabication. 

In answer then to the question 3 why syllables are not con- 
tinued to the utmost length of an act of expiration, it has been 
shown, that as speech employs all the elements, the abrupt and 
atonic must necessarily divide the time of one expiration into 
different syllabic impulses. 

From the four kinds of elementary sounds employed in the 
construction of syllables, let us now suppose the atonic and 
abrupt to be rejected, and consequently the last mentioned cause 
of limitation to be removed. Why is it impossible in this case, 
to give indefinite length to a syllable formed by the union of a 
tonic with any number of subtonics ? Or, why is such a syllable 
otherwise limited than by the term of expiration ? 

When a tonic precedes a subtonic in the formation of a con- 
crete interval, it gives up a portion of its concrete movement 
to the subtonic, which then carries on and completes the vanish. 
In this way, the radical and vanish may consist of a tonic and 
one, two, three, or at most, four subtonics. But the number 
cannot in easy pronunciation, be extended beyond these. Thus 
in the syllable strandzh (strange) the concrete rise begins on a, 
and continuing through n, d and zh, vanishes on the last. 
With two more subtonics v and m, subjoined to this word, as 
in strandzhvm, few speakers could make one pure syllabic 



124 ON SYLLABICATION. 

impulse of the combination. The reason of this difficulty, or 
as we may call it, impossibility, will appear in the following 
remarks. 

In an ordinary use of the voice, the concrete rises or falls 
through the interval of a tone, or third, or fifth ; and employs 
therein a certain portion of time. Now though the concrete 
and the time of these intervals may indeed be executed on one 
tonic, combined with several subtonics ; yet there is a limit 
to the number, utterable by an easy effort in correct speech. 
For since each constituent should have a certain duration, to 
render it cognizable as a variation of pitch 3 while to insure a 
distinct pronunciation, each should consume a portion of the 
time of the concrete ; it is found by experiment 3 each constituent 
does consume so much, that not more than four subtonics to- 
gether with the preceding tonic, can in easy utterance be com- 
pressed into the time and space of the radical and vanish, or of 
the wave. 

In pronouncing a combination of tonics and subtonics, greater 
than can be included in a single concrete, or a wave j either two 
syllables must be formed by two separate concretes, or some one 
of the tonic or subtonic constituents must be protracted on one 
line of pitch. And though this last would not necessarily pro- 
duce two syllables, yet by assuming the characteristic note of 
song, it would be very different from the effect of the truly 
equable syllabic-concrete, and therefore not to be regarded in 
the question before us. But admitting, a syllable might be 
prolonged, to the extent of expiration, through what we called 
in the second section, a continued wave ; still the prolongation 
being here made on a single tonic or subtonic of the syllabic 
compound, the case would not be regarded by the rule of sylla- 
bic combination ; or would only be, as we remarked above of a 
solitary tonic, an exception to it. 

I have thus endeavored to show why, in ordinary speech, syl- 
lables cannot be indefinitely extended, when they consist only 
of tonic and subtonic sounds, and consequently when there is no 
obstruction to their continuation, by the interposition of abrupt 
and atonic elements. 



ON SYLLABICATION. 125 

A further consideration of the radical and vanishing move- 
ment, will inform us why there is, ordinarily, but one effort of 
accentual stress on each syllable. It was shown in the last sec- 
tion that the form of force called Accent, is variously laid on 
the concrete. First ; by the abrupt explosion of the radical. 
Second ; by magnifying, so to speak, the whole of the concrete, 
the proportional forces of the radical and vanish remaining un- 
altered. Third ; by giving more force to the middle of the con- 
crete. Fourth ; by an abrupt stress on the radical, together 
with an increased force on the vanish of the same concrete. 
Fifth ; by greater stress on the vanishing portion. Sixth ; by 
making the whole concrete of the same fulness as the radical. 
Five of these forms do not alter the singleness of the accentual 
impression. Something like an exception to the rule of a single 
accent seems to exist in the fourth, as will be particularly 
noticed under the future head of Expression ; but this condition 
if an exception, being of rare occurrence, is by no means con- 
templated here, in looking at the ordinary phenomena of syl- 
labic speech. 

From what has been said, the reader may perceive the differ- 
ence among syllables, in their tunable quality, and in the glid- 
ing continuity of voice. The most agreeable in both respects, 
arc those formed by a single tonic; and although the concrete 
rise of a dipthong consists of two dissimilar sounds, it is not 
inferior in the above named characteristics to the uniform voice 
of a monothong. 

The next degree of eutony or agreeable voice in a syllable is 
that formed by an initial tonic, followed by one or two subtonics, 
as^ aim, ale, arm, earn, elm, orle. These have with an agree- 
able quality, an easy mingling of their constituents ; while their 
tonic commencement, and subtonic vanish allow an equable 
concrete movement, from the opening to the close of the syllable. 

The gliding continuity, and the agreeable quality of voice 
are to a certain degree, impaired in that order of elements, 
where the first sound is a subtonic, as in maims, gale, warm, 
warn, realm. Now since the radical in these cases does not 
properly begin on the first element, there may be in careless 



126 ON SYLLABICATION. 

pronunciation, a slight Note or level line of pitch, in the utter- 
ance of the subtonic preceding the tonic. 

The next of the syllabic combinations contain each of the 
three kinds of elements as 3 swarms, strength, thrown, smiles. 
Here the atonic sounds are not agreeable. They obscure the 
character of the concrete movement ; and though they do not 
destroy its singleness of impulse, they are attended with some 
hiatus, from the changes of position in the organs that produce 
them. 

A few syllables such as the last of lit-tle are made of sub- 
tonics and atonies, without the addition of a tonic. They are 
altogether without force and fulness in the radical opening ; 
and have a slight nasal vocality, which is most remarkable in 
this case, from its not being modified by syllabic union with 
the clear laryngeal sound of the tonics. 

The syllabic impulse has various degrees of smoothness and 
eutony, from the perfect coalescence of the two constituents of 
a dipthongal tonic, when uttered alone as a syllable 3 to the 
transition through a concrete compounded of all the elements. 
There is a peculiarity in the structure, and a hiatus in the pro- 
nunciation of certain words, from their apparently embracing 
two concretes in the same syllable. The words flower, higher, 
boy, voice, and coin, by a slight variation in effort, may each 
be uttered either as one or as two syllables. Under the first 
condition, they seem severally to consist of the union of two 
tonics in one syllable, which is impossible. When flower is 
pronounced with a single impulse, it must be upon the ele- 
ments, /, I, ou, and r, and this accords with our history of 
syllabication. When the tonic g-rr is sounded before r, the 
double impulse cannot be avoided, as mflow-er. 

We have considered the syllable as essentially a function of 
the radical and vanish ; and this function is equally productive 
of the syllabic impulse, in a downward as in an upward direc- 
tion. And it will be further shown in a future section, when 
the reader is prepared to understand the explanation, that the 
unity of a syllable is not destroyed by a movement of the voice 



ON SYLLABICATION. 127 

in continuity from the upward into the downward concrete, in 
what we called the wave. 

By the light of the preceding analysis, we may perceive 
causes that might otherwise be hidden. Thus, we account for 
the disagreeable effect, produced both in utterance, and on the 
ear, by the use of the indefinite article a, before a vowel (or 
tonic,) and by other similar successions ; as in aorta. 

When we utter the tonics in series, we may smoothly pass 
from one to the other without a break, and without a point of 
junction being appreciable. In this case, the elements are 
joined to each other by the mediation of the subtonic y-e ; as 
in enumerating the vowels 3 a, ye, yi, yo, ya. For the sub- 
tonic having a slight occlusion with its consequent vocule, 
means are afforded by this occlusion, and by the outset of this 
vocule, to give a full opening to the tonic : and thus, a true 
radical may be made on a tonic continuous with a preceding 
subtonic. When we attempt to join the article a, to a tonic at 
the beginning of a following word, an unpleasant perception 
arises from a want of that occlusion and vocule in the tonic 
article a, which in the subtonic n would give an opening radical 
fulness to the initial tonic of the word. Should the article be 
pronounced short and separately, with a pause after it, that the 
initial tonic may have a full radical opening of its own after 
the pause, the unpleasant effect will in a degree, be avoided, 
though the utterance will be necessarily delayed. In this way, 
a, — owl and a, — age are nearly as unexceptionable, as an owl 
and on age. The union of n with a tonic, and the same may 
be said of all the subtonics, is an agreeable coalescence, from 
the slight occlusion in these elements ; while an attempt to join 
the vanish of one tonic with the radical of another, produces a 
disagreeable effort in the organs, and an unpleasant impression 
on the ear. This hiatus, or difficulty in articulation, is caused 
by a deficiency in the fulness of the succeeding radical ; by an 
endeavor to supply this deficiency, and yet at the same time to 
pass quickly from tonic to tonic ; and by the disappointment of 
the ear, in not receiving the full impression of the radical, as it 
is heard in the same word on other occasions. AVe cannot 



128 ON SYLLABICATION. 

then, in a proximate succession of tonics, produce that desira- 
ble radical abruptness, which is easily accomplished when the 
tonics are pronounced with a pausal rest between them, or 
after the slight occlusive pause produced by the vocule of the 
subtonics. 

The hiatus accompanying the junction of one tonic with 
another, will be less remarkable when the last receives no 
accentual force. Thus it is less in a account, than in a acci- 
dent : for in the first example, a full degree of radical abrupt- 
ness in the tonic a is not required. 

From the hiatus in the above individual instance of the meet- 
ing of two vowels, we are led to observe the general means for 
coalescence, and the general causes of hesitation between the 
elements, under all other positions and connections in current 
speech. One form of coalescences is produced by the vanish of 
a tonic gliding into a subtonic ; another by the abrupt break- 
ing of the vocule of a subtonic into the radical of a tonic. 
While a common cause of hesitation, is the meeting of the 
vanish of one tonic with the radical of another. There are 
other causes of both coalescence and of hesitation, depending 
on the character and position of the elements, which by the 
light here thrown upon the subject, the reader can easily 
observe for himself. The principles of syllabication thus 
founded on the radical and vanish, and on the abrupt vocule of 
the subtonics, embrace the above instance of the indefinite arti- 
cle and the initial vowel of a following word 3 which has long 
been familiar as a single, but not as a general fact or law in 
speech. This law, under its specifications here exemplified, 
may perhaps be applied by others, to the investigation of the 
causes of stammering, and other defects in articulation. 

From the foregoing view of the essential importance of 
abruptness, in syllabic articulation, the reader may learn, why 
I was necessarily directed to make it an independent Mode of 
the voice. 

Through the syllabic agency of the radical and vanish, the 
passed time and perfect participle of some verbs ending in ed, 
when contracted into one syllable, by rejecting the tonic e$ 






OX SYLLABICATION. 129 

change d into t, as: snatch-ed, snatch } t ; passed, pass't ; 
stoppt; check' t. For if the e be dropped, the d having a 
vocality, and possessing as a subtonic, the power of a concrete 
movement, it must, when preceded by an abrupt or atonic ele- 
ment, as sh, 8, p, an d ^? i R * ne above instances, have a 
radical and vanish, and consequently must make another though 
a subtonic syllable in place of ed. But if the abrupt atonic t 
is substituted for d, that element having no concrete may by 
uniting with those that precede, be retained without destroying 
the singleness of the syllabic impulse. It is however to be 
remarked, that the vocule of t has a 'formative effort l 
towards a syllable, but not sufficient to produce the effect of 
one on the ear. 

Those irregular verbs which, by contraction, have their pre- 
sent and past times and perfect participle alike, generally end 
in t, as: beat, kept, hurt, let, left. The economy of utter- 
ance, or occasions for poetical measure j producing a contrac- 
tion of the regular analogical form of beat beated beated, which 
we may suppose to have been the original structure of the 
verb 3 the influence of the radical and vanish in syllabication, 
does not allow the contraction to be made by the elision of e. 
For upon this elision, beated can be changed to one syllable, as 
we have seen above, only by substituting the atonic t for the 
subtonic d, as in beaft ; and this, not being utterable, the 
single word without the last t would be used as the inflection 
of the verb, and as the participle. 

It is perhaps, owing to the unpleasant effect in subjoining s 
to cli, as the sign of the possessive case, that we have no mona- 
syllabic possessive, in the pronoun which; and without the 
hiatus, that real want would probably have been long since, 
conveniently supplied. With this difficulty in articulation, we 
often use an emphatic circumlocution, to denote the property 
of a subject. In the following sentence j Find me a ring, the 
diameter of which is six inches^ the word which having a lite- 
ral composition that makes it audibly impressive, and when 
required, an emphatic relative 3 has here, along with the prepo- 
sition, too much of that audible importance, for its merely 



130 ON SYLLABICATION. 

expletive meaning in the sentence ; and thus in a manner, over- 
bears the principal idea of the ring and its diameter. Yet to 
make it a possessive by elision, as in which* 8, would be even 
more striking. Nor would it be less so, until authorized by 
custom, to employ its supposed original, which its, as with 
whose (who's) from who his, or who hers ; according to the old 
form of the possessive case of nouns. 

It is from the peculiarity of this case, that writers with a 
delicate perception of phraseology find those proper occasions, 
where the less-accented that, as a relative, may be fluently sub- 
stituted for this ear-stamping pronoun. Under the like diffi- 
culty the best Authors, to avoid awkward or affected allitera- 
tion, have sometimes employed whose, in reference to things, as 
a possessive case of which. Fortunately however, by a substi- 
tutive and variable construction, the copious resources, and 
available versatility of our language, is ready and sufficient to 
meet all its incidental wants.* 

The foregoing principles may be hereafter applied to explain 
some apparent anomalies in speech, that have hitherto passed 
without scrutiny, or without satisfactory interpretation. But 
I have already exceeded my original intention, in planning the 
subject of this section ; and must therefore leave other particu- 
lars, to the observation, reflection, and time of the inquiring 
and intelligent reader. Perhaps I do not exceed the bounds of 
reasonable anticipation, in foreseeing his rising interest in this 
history of the voice. But €£ all these things, and more too that 
shall be told, may in looking back from future time, appear, in 
the distance, to have been, the preface only to a full knowledge 
of this subject j if he will adopt the Method of Inquiry which 
has thus far assisted me, or which is in truth the more than 

* The above notice of the impressive effect of the pronoun which, might be 
extended to that doubtful part of speech, because, and to the adverb so. These 
words are in a degree emphatic by their literal sound alone; and are to be 
employed in the first instance, for directing attention to some important reason, 
or agency ; and in the second, for particular stress, when this adverb has an 
inferential importance. Does their influence depend on the full quality, and 
extended time of their respective tonics, a-11, and o-ld? And may there not 
be other English words, with a like impressive construction, deserving to be 
known, classed, and thoughtfully used. 






THE MECHANISM OF THE VOICE. 131 

co-efficient Author of this work ; if he will become the spy upon 
nature through his own watchfulness, and not rely on a care- 
less, and often itself a borrowed authority ; if he will turn 
from those discouraging prospects, presented by the result of 
every metaphysical or transcendental attempt to make know- 
ledge out of notions ; and by entering into sober communion 
with his own senses, lay himself open to the advising of those 
five ministers of observation, appointed by Nature for his coun- 
seling in all inquiry after truth. 



SECTION V. 

Of the Causative Mechanism of the Voice, in relation to its 
different Qualities, and to its Pitch. 

A description of the different modes and forms of sound in 
the human voice, without exemplification by actual utterance, 
is always insufficient and often unintelligible. With a view to 
facilitate instruction, it is desirable to discover the mechanical 
movements of the organs, together with the action of the air 
upon them ; that a reference to conformations and changes of 
the organs, and to the impulses of the air, may enable an 
observer to exemplify to himself, the description of vocal sounds, 
by using the known physical means which produce them. 

The result of physiological inquiry on this subject is not satis- 
factory. Unfortunately, most physiologists have been public 
teachers, appointed to stations of profit and influence, and re- 
quired to instruct without having always the time, or ability, 
or disposition to investigate. Their condition has obliged them 
to compile without choice, to define and arrange without reflec- 



132 THE MECHANISM 

tion, and to affect an originality perhaps forbidden by the 
character of their minds, or the multiplicity of their duties. 
From these professorial instructors, the covered movements of 
the organs of speech seem to cut off the means of observation ; 
and while they have feigned themselves under a necessity to 
teach, what they had never learned or understood, they have 
endeavored to elude the difficulty, by framing some of those 
works of fancy long ago designed by the Craft of Mastership, 
for satisfying the cravings of undiscerning youth. The thought- 
less wishes of the scholar have been respectfully regarded by 
the teacher ; and sketches of knowledge from his accommodat- 
ing pencil have frequently been rather a worked-out picture of 
the pupil's vain preconceptions, than of the truth, and nothing 
but the truth of nature. 

There are few confirmed opinions among physiologists, on the 
mechanism of the voice ; and by the duties of philosophy we 
are bound to acknowledge much ignorance and error on this 
subject. We know that the voice is made by the passage of air 
through the larynx, and cavities of the mouth and nose. From 
experiments on the human larynx, or on artificial imitations of 
its structure ; and from observations upon the vocal mechanism, 
by exposing the organs in living animals 3 it is inferred with 
great probability, that audibility of voice proceeds immediately 
from the ligaments of the glottis. We have no precise know- 
ledge of the causes of Pitch ; its formation having been by 
authors differently attributed to variations in the aperture of 
the glottis ; to the difference of length in its chords ; their varied 
degrees of tension ; the varying velocity of the current of air 
through the aperture of the glottis ; the rise and fall of the 
whole larynx, and the consequent variation of length in the 
vocal avenues, between the glottis and the external limit of the 
mouth and of the nose ; and finally, to the influence of a combi- 
nation of two or more of these causes. Nor are we acquainted 
with the mechanisms, respectively producing those varieties of 
sound called Natural voice, Whisper, and Falsette. Each of 
these varieties has received some theoretic explanation ; and 



OF THE VOICE. 133 

their locality has, without much precision, been severally as- 
signed to the chest, the throat, and the head. 

These discordant and fictional accounts have been in some 
measure, the consequence of conceiting a resemblance, between 
the organs of the voice and common instruments of music ; and 
■while those fluctuations of opinion which of themselves, so 
rarely settle into truth 3 have represented the vocal mechanism 
to be like that of mouthed, or reeded, or stringed instruments, 
the wildness of these unfounded, or still incomplete analogies 
has run into outrage of all similitude, by comparing the avenue 
of the fauces, mouth, and nose, to the body of a flute ; and 
ascribing false intonation, to an inequality of tension between 
what are called the ' strings of the glottis.' We are too much 
disposed to measure the resources of nature, by the limited 
inventions of art. The forms and other conditions of matter, 
which jointly with the motion of air may produce sound, must 
be innumerable ; and it certainly is not an enlarged analogical 
view of the mechanism of the human voice, which regards the 
functions of those few forms only that have received the name 
of 'musical instruments.' 

The illustrations these analogies were supposed to afford, 
have been no more than Theoretic resting places for the mind, 
in the perplexing pursuit of truth. The physiologists of anti- 
quity thought they explained the mysteries of the voice, when 
they compared the trachea to a flute ; and science reposed from 
the time of Galen, to that of Dodart and Ferrein in the 
eighteenth century, on the satisfaction produced by this fancy. 
The means of illustration have followed the fashion of instru- 
ments, and of late years, the chords of the Eolian harp and the 
reed of the hautboy have furnished their mechanical pictures of 
the vocal organs. One cannot say positively 3 a resemblance 
of the mechanism of the voice, to that of some known instru- 
ment of music, may not be proved hereafter; but cautious 
reflection Avill guard us against surprise on a future discovery, 
that in most points, the formative causes in the two cases, are 
totally dissimilar. Before the use of the balloon for the sup- 
port and progress of man upon the air, no one ever imagined 



134 THE MECHANISM 

the possibility of his flight, by any other instrumentality than 
that of wings. 

The history of the voice records its exact anatomy, and some 
important physiological experiment, together with inferences 
from the mechanism of musical instruments, applied without 
much precision, to the human organs. We seem to have been 
so entirely convinced of the analogy between these cases, and 
have relied so implicitly on systems constructed upon it, that 
we have forgotten the importance of unbiased observation. 
Presumption in fancying the fulness of knowledge already ac- 
complished, and despair in thinking it unattainable, are equally 
adverse to the efforts of improvement. The panurgic or all- 
working power of Baconian Science directs us by its productive 
rules, to record all the phenomena of the voice ; and requires 
us in our classifications, to know resemblances and differences, 
not to imagine them. There is no doing without the assistance 
of analogies j as well when looking into the co-relation of the 
arts, as in observing the processes of nature. With peculiar 
adaptation to a varied office, they are the all-suggestive coun- 
selors of intellect, in the discovery of that original truth, which 
they are afterwards to teach and to beautify by illustration : 
they should not however be confounded with the truth itself, 
which they serve only to develope and adorn. In the present 
inquiry, it might be proper to take into consideration every anal- 
ogy of form, in artificial instruments of sound ; but when a strict 
use of the senses cannot prove a similarity of mechanism between 
them and the vocal organs, it is no benefit to retain as parts 
of a science, those fancied means that cannot illustrate, after 
they have been unsuccessfully used to discover its truth.* 

* After the directive principles of the Novum Organum had accomplished 
much of the promised work of scientific precision, and before they have been 
duly applied to rectify the errors of every Theoretic Faith j, for which they are 
all-sufficient, and were prospectively intended 3 we are invited to new efforts of 
inquiry, by the additional method of a * Positive Philosophy,' to assist the pro- 
gressive purpose of its all-sufficient prototype. But English and American 
philosophy has too often been deluded into belief of fiction and falsehood, under 
the promise of Positive science, for this Word to afford in our common language, 
a favorable omen of exactness in observation and thought. Nor has the flag 



OF THE VOICE. 185 

When I speak of our ignorance of the mechanical causes of 
the different kinds of voice, and of their pitch, let me be clearly 
understood. To knoiv a thing, as this phrase is applied in most 
of the subjects of human inquiry, is to have that opinion of its 
character and cause, which authority, analogical argument, and 
partial observation, prompted by various motives of vanity or 
interest, may suggest. To hiotv, in natural philosophy, we 
must employ our senses, and contrive experiments, on the sub- 
that bears it as yet waved over any important 'annexation' of truths beyond 
the acquisitions of that Commanding Philosophy, which has gone the way of 
victory before it. On the other hand, the Baconian system of observation has 
long hung its banner of science, across the Newtonian Sky ; and is daily bring- 
ing from the depths of the earth, the historic leaves of Creation's Stone-and- 
Fossil Book ; has raised its trophies of ingenius art, and national wealth, over 
the coal fields of New Castle, the founderies of Wales, the thousand productive 
engines of Sheffield and Manchester, the wonders of locomotive-agency, on every 
sea, and civilized land -} and over that Electric tongue, which speaks in a moment, 
the exchanging purposes of commerce, between them all. The power of this 
philosophy, while it has already furnished those great physical advantages, still 
holds within itself, the sure but unused means of clearing-up every intellectual 
and moral mystification. 

To those great results of the boundless purposes of the Observative System, I 
presume to join the humble contribution of this essay. The success of that sys- 
tem, on our present subject of speech, which has so long resisted all other means 
of inquiry, and which has too incautiously been considered, beyond discrimina- 
tion ; may indeed be only a triumph within the narrow field of Vocal Physiology, 
and Taste ; yet poorly as it may compare with those extended practical achieve- 
ments, it is equally with them, a triumph in principle and method, of the wise 
and comprehensive design of the Baconian Logic j which, like the unlimited cir- 
cuit of Nature, thus encompasses both the greatest and the least. 

Although Nature, the just and sole Executrix of Providential Will, knows not, 
in the agency of her laws, the human prompting of Enthusiasm, yet we may be 
pardoned if we should feel it, towards that Mighty Method, which by unfolding 
her works, teaches that for her ceaseless energies she never requires it. 

Does truth allure thee ? Learn befictioned man, 
At Bacon's word, her dawning light began ; 
Learn how that light's redeeming ray has shined, 
With gleams of whole Salvation o'er the mind. 
And should that Mind to truth's full-light be brought, 
'Twill be their task, who Think as Bacon Thought. 

When the distinguished Poet, and author of the well known and malicious 
epigram, applied the inconsistent epithets, 'greatest, wisest, and meanest,' to one 



136 THE MECHANISM 

ject of inquiry; and admit no belief, which may not in its 
proper way, be made undeniable by demonstration. Physiology 
has too long been led by a fictional logic ; and no branch more 
conspicuously than that of the mechanism of the human voice. 
One, from the analogy of musical strings, supposes Pitch to be 

and the same Exalted Intellect, he committed as great a solecism in his adjec- 
tives^ as he did in his verbs, when describing the mules and wagons returning 
from Mount Ida, with wood for the funeral pile of Patroclus 3 he has the follow- 
ing unsuccessful attempt to make a prolonged quantity, the verbal sign of a 
cautious animal pace. 

First move the heavy mules securely slow, 

O'er hills, o'er dales, o'er rocks, o'er crags [head-long of course) they go. 

The history of the celebrated line of discordant adjectives 3 the joint work of 
Pope and Bolingbroke^ is short. 

The great Benefactor while preparing posterity for a full survey of the truth 
and beauty of Nature, happened, in his Essays, to make the general remark 3 
that deformed persons, regarding themselves as exceptions to the perfect order 
of her Laws, and as objects of pity or scorn 3 endeavor to meet with even-hand the 
hardship of their lot, by a dissatisfied and jealous temper towards the world ; yet 
kindly allowing^ their condition has sometimes been the incentive to great exer- 
tion and excellence. It is the malice of the misshapen Poet, apparently excited 
by this remark, that here obliges us to allude unwillingly to his misfortune; 
for on reading this popular Work of the Philosopher, he may from the fictional 
habit of his own mind, together with his poetical egotism, have taken the remark 
as personal to himself, though then unborn; and thus have joined to his con- 
stitutional and peevish irritability, a revengeful disposition towards the Author. 

Lord Bolingbroke having furnished Pope with his sententious prose reflections, 
was not by Rank and Title or by Head and Heart, so simply generous towards 
the ' Wisest and Greatest of mankind 3' thus sacrificed by the ' smooth barbarity' 
of King and Courtier, for his venial share of the besetting sins of every ambi- 
tious public station 3 as afterwards to condemn and erase, if he did not direct 
the vindictive couplet of his versifying amanuensis ; but meanly, if with jealousy 
of a superior intellect, left it for any ignorant and self-righteous pharisee, to 
quote, and to thank God, on the comparison, that he is not like other men, nor 
even as the High Chancellor Bacon. 

If Pope's greediness of praise, that vicious appetite of prideless and limited 
minds, had led him to turn into heroic measure, the Essays of his great Superior, 
instead of Bolingbroke's philosophic generalities, which it is said he did not com- 
prehend 3 he would have had clear, profound, and practical thoughts, with all the 
pith of poetical maxims, to work upon ; and might have induced posterity to over- 
look some of his own contentious vanity, and annoying caprices, through an odd 
association of his pigmy share of rhyme and reason, with the greatness of an 
Immortal fame. 



OF THE VOICE. 137 

produced by the varied tension of the chords of the glottis 3 
■without showing a correspondence of the degrees of tension 
with the degrees of pitch. Another, that the vibration of* these 
chords performs the same functions as the reed of the hautboys 
without showing the manner in which this laryngeal reed fixes 
the degrees of intonation. "While a third ascribes the pitch of 
the falsette to the agency of the base of the tongue, the fauces, 
the soft palate, and uvula 3 without showing any fixed points of 
relationship, between the parts of this cavernous structure and 
the current of expiration, in the production of concrete or dis- 
crete pitch. 

AY hen therefore we seek to knoiv the mechanism of the voice, 
it should be, to see, or to be truly told by those who have seen, 
the -whole process of the action of the air on the vocal organs, 
in the production of the quality, force, pitch, and articulation 
of speech. This method and this alone, produces permanent 
knowledge ; and elevates our belief above the condition of vul- 
gar opinion, and sectarian dispute. The visibility of most of 
the parts concerned in Articulation, has long since produced 
among physiologists, some agreement as to the agency of those 
parts. But after all I have been able to observe and learn, on 
the subject of Quality and Pitch, I must in speaking the lan- 
guage of an exact philosophy, fairly confess an entire ignorance 
of their mechanical causations: and the great difference on 
this point among authors, should go far towards destroying 
respect for most of their opinions.* 

As this section is addressed principally to physiologists, I 
omit a description of the organs of the voice, since it may be 
found in all the manuals of anatomy ; and it would be useless 
to transcribe an account of structures and actions, when we 
knew not with specific reference, what vocal effect those actions 
produce. The general statement of our problem is, that some 
part or parts of the vocal passages produce all the phenomena 

* If the reader cannot now agree with mc, on the importance of the purely 
observative use of the mind, here recommended for every thing, let him wait 
till he has finished this volume, before he pronounces that it has been therein 
unproductive. 

10 



138 THE MECHANISM 

of the voice. When discovery shall point out the efficient parts, 
and their actions, it will then be the duty of anatomy to 
describe their internal organization, and motive powers, that 
the whole may be made a permanent subject of science. The 
anatomical structure of a part, is the material cause, and thus 
the foundation of its physiology ; but observation of the living 
function has almost universally thrown the first light upon the 
formative causes of its physiological effects. It has been the 
part of anatomy to confirm or complete our knowledge of them ; 
agreeably to the saying of the Greek philosophy, that what is 
first to nature in the act of creation, is the last to man in the 
labor of inquiry. With regard to the mechanism of the voice, 
we are yet occupied with the perplexities of analysis ; when 
that work shall be finished, we may begin again with muscles, 
cartilages, ligaments, mucous tissues, and the os hyoides, and 
describe the whole with the synthetic steps of successive causa- 
tion 

In the meantime, we should not so far follow the example of 
System-makers and Professors, as to furnish an account of the 
mechanism of the voice, solely because it is desirable and may 
be looked for. Aiming to serve truth with our senses, we 
should describe what is distinguishable by the ear in the differ- 
ent kinds of voice, together with the visible structure and 
movement of the organs ; in the hope, that by an acknowledg- 
ment of our present ignorance, and by future observation and 
experiment, other inquirers may arrive at the certainty, which 
through a different method of investigation has never yet been 
attained. 

The thirty-five elements of speech may be heard under four 
different kinds of voice ; the Natural, the Falsette, the Whis- 
pering, and that improved quality, to be presently described 
under the name of the Orotund. 

What is called the Natural, is employed in ordinary speak- 
ing. Its compass includes a range of pitch from the lowest 
utterable sound, up to that point at which the voice is said to 
break. At this place the natural voice ceases, and the higher 
parts of the scale are made by a shriller kind called the Fal- 



OF THE VOICE. 139 

sette. The natural voice is capable of the discrete, the con- 
crete, and the tremulous progression. By the concrete and 
tremulous movement, the natural may be continued into the 
falsetto without a perceptible point of union. Thus the con- 
crete rise in vehement interrogation, sometimes passes far above 
the limit of the natural scale, without producing that unpleasant 
break in the transition to the falsette, which in the discrete 
scale is remarkable both as to quality of sound, and to diffi- 
culty in executive effort, except with persons of great vocal 
skill. The peculiarity of quality and of intonation at this 
point of the discrete scale of song, has received the name of 
1 false note.' 

The natural voice is said to be produced by the vibration of 
the chords of the glottis. This has been inferred, from a sup- 
posed analogy between the action of the human organ, and that 
of the dog, in which the vibration has been observed, on expos- 
ing the glottis during the cries of the animal j and from the 
vibration of the chords, by blowing through the human larynx, 
when removed from the body. The conclusion is therefore 
probable, but until it is seen in the living function of the part, 
or until there is sufficient approximation to this proof by other 
means, it cannot be admitted as a portion of exact physiological 
science. 

With regard to the mechanical cause of the Variations of 
Pitch in the natural voice, different notions, and they are but 
notions, have been proposed by their respective advocates. 
They were transiently enumerated above.* 

• Shortly after the first publication of this work, in January, eighteen hun- 
dred and twenty-seven 3 Mr. Robert Willis, of Caius College, Cambridge, follow- 
ing up the experiments of Kratzenstein and Kempelen, obtained by means of 
tabular and other ingenius contrivances, many interesting results, approaching 
to the satisfactory conclusion, that vocal sound is produced, on the principle of 
the Reed, by the vibration of the ligamentous chords of the glottis. The arti- 
ficial contrivances further showed by analogy, that ritch may be in part pro- 
duced by certain variations of these chords, as they form the aperture of the 
glottis; still leaving it undetermined, by what other influence this pitch may 
be partly made or modified, in the proper vocal organ. By another contrivance, 
he was enabled to produce several of the vowel sounds. 

The purpose of this volume does not require a special notice of the interest- 



140 THE MECHANISM 

On this subject, about which we know so little, but on which 
theorists are ready to fix on anything, it is well to begin the 
investigation of some current opinions, with the logical process 
of exclusion ; by showing what does not produce pitch, in the 
visible parts of the vocal apparatus. 

The Pitch of the natural voice does not appear to be directly 
produced by the mouth and fauces, for it will be seen on exam- 
ination, that the rise and fall through the scale, may be seve- 
rally effected on all the tonic elements ; and that during 
the exclusive intonation of each, the positions of the tongue 
and fauces remain unaltered j if we except some slight unsteadi- 
ness of the tongue and soft palate, which can have no relation 
to the definite divisions of pitch. 

The sound of a-we is made, while the tongue is about on a 
level with the lower teeth ; the mouth being open, for observa- 

ing details of Mr. Willis' inquiry. They do not however, in point of precise 
and permanent knowledge, extend the subject much beyond what we have 
stated in the text, to be the opinions of other writers ; and it is there said in 
caution^ we must not suppose, the mechanism of the voice necessarily resem- 
bles that of certain instruments of music : for to be known perfectly, it must be 
known in itself. 

It is but a partial view, to show that vowel sounds may be made by certain 
kinds of tubes, in connection with a reed, and a bowl with a sliding cover. Con- 
sonants as well as vowels are only different kinds of sound, that may be classed, 
according to their causes, as Human, Sub-Animal, and Mechanical. The 
human are few, the sub-animal, and mechanical, innumerable. Our associa- 
tion of the human vowels with their alphabetic characters, and with thoughts 
and passions, when united with consonants into words, seems to represent them 
as altogether different from sub-animal and mechanical sounds. But there is 
no vowel in the voice of man, that is not to be heard from some beast, or bird, 
or insect, or in the innumerable sounds and noises, made by the reciprocal 
action between air, and the varied forms and conditions of solids and fluids. 
The fauces and larynx offer only the case of a peculiar and moistened structure, 
forming those sounds, which in the egotism of our education, hardly our con- 
stitution, we have so far identified with humanity, as to prevent our immediate 
notice of similar sub-animal and mechanical sounds. 

The common words of the world veil the true relationship of things, till phi- 
losophy draws aside the curtain ; and nine-tenths of mankind, who may think 
themselves very observant, never perceive in the jet of a fountain, the click of a 
time-piece, the grating of a saw, and the rapid friction of a cable, some of those 
prerogative elements, which set them as they suppose, so far above the brute. 



OF THE VOICE. 141 

Iron, and all the parts of this vocal cavity having the same posi- 
tion, as in an act of silent respiration. In performing the run 
of pitch on this element, we must however, have regard to a 
change of the mechanism of its radical, to that of c-rr, in the 
articulation of its vanish, which however, has no effect in this 
-ince it exists equally in the downward pitch. The sound 
of e-\e is made by approximating the tongue to the roof of the 
mouth, leaving between them a narrow passage for the air. 
Now in one of these instances, the avenue of the mouth and 
and fauces is free ; while in the other, the tongue almost closes 
the back' of the mouth, and must be nearly in contact with the 
veil of the palate, and the arch of the fauces. But in each case 
the respective positions remain unaltered, throughout the varia- 
tions of pitch ; and in both, the pitch is made with equal facility 
and exactness. 

Among the subtonics, the pitch of ng is made when the cur- 
rent of air through the mouth is completely obstructed, by 
contact of the base of the tongue with the soft palate. Th-en, 
on the other hand, may be intonated through the scale, although 
it is produced by the stream of expiration over the tip of the 
tongue, in contact with the upper fore-teeth. 

It is unnecessary to refer to the visible positions of the mouth 
and fauces in the production of other elements. The identity 
of pitch, under all their various mechanisms, must lead to the 
conclusion, that the Pitch of the natural voice is not produced 
by the action of these parts. 

As the pitch of the element ng, is made by the stream of air 
passing directly from the glottis through the nose, without 
entering into the fauces and the cavity of the mouth, we 
may inquire: whether the varieties of pitch, if produced above 
the glottis at all, are made in the avenue of the nose. But 
pitch may be made when the air does not pass through the nose. 
Pitch too is a variable function, while the parts within the nose 
are incapable of motion. 

The Falsette is a peculiar voice, in the higher degrees of 
pitch, beginning where the natural voice breaks, or outruns its 
compass. The piercing cry, the scream, and the yell are various 



142 THE MECHANISM 

forms of the falsette. It must not however be understood that 
the compass of the falsette lies restrictively, between its highest 
practicable note, and the point where the natural voice ends ; 
for the same kind of falsette-sound may by effort, be formed 
even below the usual point of separation of the two voices, or 
the place of what is called the • false note.' 

All the elements except the atonies, which are only aspira- 
tions, may be made in falsette. It has been already remarked, 
that the unpleasant effect both of sound and of effort, in the 
change from natural to falsette intonation, is obviated when 
the transition is made by the concrete, and by the tremulous 
scales. 

The striking difference in quality, between the natural and 
the falsette voices, has created the idea of a difference in the 
respective mechanisms, not only of their kind of sound, but 
likewise of their pitch. 

It has been supposed, the falsette is produced at the \ upper 
orifice of the larynx, formed by the summits of the arytenoid 
cartilages and the epiglottis :'* and the difficulty of joining 
it to the natural voice, which is thought to be made by the 
inferior ligaments of the glottis, is ascribed to the change of 
mechanism in the transition. On this point I have only to add, 
that the falsette or a similar voice, but without its acuteness, 
may be brought downward in pitch, nearly to the lowest degree 
of the natural voice; at least I am able so to reduce it 3 thus 
producing what seems to be a unison, or at least an octave con- 
cord of the natural and the falsette : and since the natural voice 
may by cultivation be carried above the point it instinctively 
reaches, it suggests the inquiry, whether these voices may have 
a different agency of mechanism ; regarding these additions to 
the range of pitch, and the effort in acquiring a command over 
them 3 as according rather with the idea of a difference in the 
mechanical cause of the two voices, than with that of an exten- 
sion of the powers of the same organization.")* 

* See a summary of the discoveries and opinions of M. Dodart, in Rees' 
Cyclopedia, under the article, Voice. 

f The character of this reduced falsette, if I may so call it, consisting of an 
apparent combination of its peculiar sound with the natural voice ^ and pro- 






OF TIIE VOICE. 143 

As we are ignorant of the mechanical cause of the falsette, 
supposing it to be different from that of the natural voice, so 
the cause of its pitch is equally unknown. But fiction is ever 
ready to supply the wants of ignorance ; and the peculiarity of 
the falsette, leading physiologists to the idea of a difference 
between its mechanism and that of the natural voice, they have 
supposed the pitch of the former is made above the larynx, by 
the back parts of the mouth. It is unnecessary to give the 
particulars of this fancy, as there seems to be no other foun- 
dation for it, than the idea of a sort of antithesis in causation ; 
since the natural voice, from which the falsette differs so much, 
is supposed to be made within the larynx. Whatever may have 
suggested the notion, we have had from somebody, a full theo- 
retic explanation, when there is scarcely fact enough to war- 
rant a plausible conjecture. 

As we are thus ignorant of what is the cause of the variations 
of pitch in falsette, we may perhaps lessen the opportunities for 
supplying the place of ignorance by fiction, in showing what it 
is not. 

If the cavity of the mouth be observed during the exercise 
of the falsette on the element a-we, very little alteration will be 
perceived in the positions of the surrounding parts ; except some 
slight contractile movement in the uvula as the pitch rises, and 

during a kind of resonant quality, may, in a manner, be illustrated on the flageo- 
let, by singing or rather by what is called ' humming,' while blowing it. A similar 
Bound is made by joining a vocal murmur with the shrill aspiration of whistling. 
Both these cases however, have more of a buzzing vibration, than is heard in 
the reduced or hoarse falsette. 

There is occasionally heard among the voices of women, an attractive and 
conciliating sweetness of Quality; with the natural Pitch of the sex tempered 
by fulness into dignity; and that seems to be a resonant union of the Soprano, 
and the Contralto, delicately similar to the ruder resonance of the reduced 
Falsette. A voice, when trained to the truth and grace of elocution ; delightful 
in social life, in the Reading Circle, and in the easier feminine efforts of the 
Stage : but wanting the Matron-power of intonation for that gravity of passion- 
less thought, and vigor of thoughtful passion which exalts the style of Intel- 
lectual Tragedy. I leave every one, to describe for himself, the effect of this 
voice, when it is the instrument of a mind with good sense, good temper, re- 
fined familiarity, and with knowledge enough for the important discovery, that 
it was made, not to be seU-willecl, but to think for itself. 



144 THE MECHANISM 

when this is strained to its highest degree, an almost total disap- 
pearance of the uvula within the veil of the palate. That this 
contraction of the uvula, in the higher notes of falsette, is not 
the sole cause of its pitch j and that it is not produced by parts 
of the vocal passage situated above the glottis, seems conclusive 
from the following considerations. 

The elements n and mj both being made by the passage of 
air from the glottis, solely through the nosej can be precisely 
intonated in the falsette scale. In this case the current of 
expiration does not pass-by the soft palate, uvula, sides of the 
fauces and base of the tongue ; parts of the mouth supposed to 
be the cause of pitch in this voice. 

All the tonic and subtonic elements can be made in the 
falsette. But it is not in accordance with the laws of sound, that 
the identical quality called falsette, and its pitch, should be 
made under a mechanism so varied, that the formative cause of 
some of the elements, as of a-we and a-n, give a clear passage 
to expiration through the mouth, while that of others, as e-ve, 
Z, and r, nearly obstruct it. 

As the falsette may be made by inspiration through the nose 
with a closed mouth, the air cannot come into contact with the 
parts of the mouth which have been assigned as the mechanism 
of the falsette. If we inhale through a tube, with one end 
reaching beyond the soft palate, the falsette may be carried 
through its pitch, thus formed by inspiration ; though the cur- 
rent of air in this case does not impress the soft parts at the 
back of the mouth, but passes from the tube directly into the 
glottis. And the same is true of expiration, where the current 
passes directly from the glottis into the tube. 

I have at this time a case under professional treatment, in 
which the tonsils are so enlarged by disease, that their near 
approach to each other, allows only space for the uvula to hang 
between them ; thus obstructing the passage of air through the 
mouth, except by an effort ; and presenting a structure alto- 
gether different from the common condition, assigned as the 
mechanical cause, of the falsette. And yet this individual is 
able to make the falsette intonation. 






OF TIIE VOICE. 145 

1 had lately an opportunity of seeing an instance of malforma- 
tion, where the whole soft palate is wanting. The passage to 
the throat being a single arch, curving along the edge of the 
palate bone, instead of the low double arch, formed by the soft 
palate and depending uvula in the perfect fauces. Adhering to 
each side of the arch, just above the tonsil, there is a small 
tuber or fleshy dropj seemingly formed by the curtain of the 
soft palate, being divided vertically through the uvula to the 
palate bone ; and each portion of the curtain being then drawn 
within the soft parts on its respective side, except the drops, 
or lower parts of the semi-uvulas, which project in the manner 
and place above described. This is the state, at rest. In 
straining the highest notes of the falsetto, the two projecting 
uvular-drops, by some peculiar muscularity, make an effort to 
approach each other horizontally across the mouth, and thereby 
convert the semicircular arch into the form of a horse-shoe j by 
drawing inwards, each about half an inch, along the diameter 
of the arch. Here then, the principal part of the apparatus, 
said to produce the falsetto, is wanting ; yet this voice and its 
degrees of pitch are accurately executed by the individual, 
notwithstanding her deformity. 

The back parts of the mouth are in their function, too varia- 
ble under the accidental influence of muscular eflbrt, to be the 
mechanical cause of the fixed and accurate degrees of the scale. 
For when any one point of pitch is maintained, the soft palate 
and its appendage the uvula, may be seen to undergo involun- 
tary movements, that do not appear to have any effect on the 
voice. I am aide to make twenty-four distinct notes with accu- 
rate intonation ; fifteen are natural and nine falsette. In run- 
ning through this compass on the dipthong <7-wc, in which the 
articulativc mechanism of an open mouth and embedded tongue, 
allows the isthmus of the fauces to be distinctly seen; I perceive 
do alteration of position in executing the natural notes, except 
that of the articulative change, when the voice rises into e-rr, 
the obscure vanish of this dipthong. There is indeed an 
unsteadiness in the positions, but none of that definite grada- 
tion in organic changes, implied in the ascription of the varia- 



146 THE MECHANISM 

tions of pitch to the motions of the back part of the mouth. In 
intonating the falsette discretely, on the dipthong a-we, I 
perceive some change in the palate, but little or none in the 
tongue, if the vanish <?-rr is avoided. The change in the palate 
consists of a convulsive action of the uvula, which starts-up, as 
the radical of a-we opens on each degree of the scale, and the 
next moment descends. This convulsive action is not apparent 
when the voice ascends by the concrete ; though under the use 
of both scales, the uvula at the highest rise of the falsette is 
contracted almost to disappearance. That this extreme con- 
traction is not a move especially productive of pitch in the fal- 
sette, I have endeavored to show ; but am not able to say, 
whether it arises from some associated muscular action, or from 
some change of the articulative mechanism in its higher notes. 

I have offered these few remarks, in acknowledging my igno- 
rance of the mechanical cause of the quality, and the pitch of 
the falsette voice. 

The Whispering voice is well known. It is an aspiration j 
and makes the short impulse, and the final Vocule, of the 
atonic elements. These then are necessarily a whisper. All 
the other elements though properly vocal, may be likewise 
made by aspiration. The whisper of b, d, and g, though 
considered by Holder and his followers as identical with the 
atonies p, t, and k, is to my ear at least, faintly distinguish- 
able from them, by having a less easy outset, and by a slight 
initial effort of articulation. 

We are not acquainted with the mechanical cause of whisper, 
as distinguished from vocality. It has been ascribed to the 
operation of the current of air on the sides of the glottis, while 
its cords are at rest ; whereas vocality is said to proceed from 
the agitation of the air by the vibration of those chords. This 
however is merely an inference from analogy, and has a claim 
to possibility, but no more. 

The whispering voice has its variation of pitch j though it is 
effected in a very different manner from that of the natural and 
the falsette. The intonation of these voices, as shown above, 
is not connected with the visible movements of the mouth, 






OF THE VOICE. 147 

tongue, and fauces, which produce articulation. But if there 
has been no error in my observation, the transit through the 
scale of whisper is somehow made within the vocal organs, 
by taking different elements for the successive steps of the dis- 
crete movement ; each whispered element being itself incapa- 
ble of variation in pitch, while its true articulation remains 
unchanged. 

For the explanation of this subject, let us designate three 
forms of the whispering voice. The Articulated, consisting in 
the pronunciation of the alphabetic elements ; the Whistled, 
having the well-known shrillness of this function ; and the 
Sufflated, a husky breath, partaking of the character of the two 
former, without having the shrill quality of one, or the articu- 
lation of the other. Now, when in Articulated Whisper, the 
tonics are distinctly pronounced, without running into Suffla- 
tion, the changes of pitch are made upon changes of the ele- 
ments. In the order of articulated intonation, oo-ze is the 
lowest in the scale, and e-ve the highest : the succession by the 
first, third, and fifth, through two octaves, being upon the 
seven following elements. 





First Octave. 




Second Octave. 






a 




A. 




r 
1 


3 5 


8 1 


3 5 


8 


oo-ze 


a-we a-rt 


e-rr 


e-\l a-\e 


e-v 



This scale of articulated whisper is of so peculiar a character 
that I do not presume to speak without doubt upon it ; for even 
a seeming anomaly in intonation, leads me, under a sense of 
the uniformity of the laws of nature, to question my own obser- 
vation ; and to call for the assistance of others. If however, 
this is the real construction of the scale, for so it appears to 
mej each intermediate note must consist of sounds that resem- 
ble those contiguous to it. Thus when we require a second in 
the progression between oo-ze and a-we, it must partake of the 
articulation of both these elements. And of the two sounds for 
the sixth and the seventh, between a-rt and e-rr, one will par- 
take more of the articulation of a-rt and the other of i'-rr. 



148 THE MECHANISM 

But as these intermediate sounds are not used in our language, 
they cannot be made without great difficulty, and only after 
long and careful effort. Thus the intonation of articulated 
whisper is rarely executed with precision, except at the points 
numbered in the preceding series ; since we have only the whis- 
pered elements which are employed at those points. 

In the above exemplification, I have given only seven tonics ; 
but we formerly enumerated twelve, and if c-oy is admitted as 
a dipthong, there are six more to which I have not allotted 
separate places, in the whispered scale. Of these, 6>-ld takes its 
place with oo-ze ; isle, and ou-r with a-we ; i-i with e-ve ; 
and a-n comes next before e-rr. This appears to me to be the 
position of these six tonics. But since I cannot offer the obser- 
vations, as altogether satisfactory to my ear, I leave the sub- 
ject for others.* 

* It is necessary to remark, that a delicate ear, and a practical knowledge of 
the scale are required for measuring this progression of whispered articulation. 
The extent of the series of elements given in the text being through two octaves, 
the series must begin on the gravest degree of pitch. I cannot on this subject, 
draw from the experience of others ; but in executing the rising order of these 
elements, I take oo-ze at the very lowest point at which the articulation, freed 
from whistle and suffiation, can be made^ to bring the highest place of e-ve, 
within the reach of intonation ; my voice being just able to compass these two 
octaves in articulated whisper. As a matter for further investigation upon this 
subject, it may not be irrelevant to remark, the coincidence in my own case, of 
the number of degrees in the scale of whispered articulation with that of the 
natural voice; both being about fifteen. 

Let me here add a suggestion, on the ground that the intonation of articulated 
whisper is as I have observed it. Since the mechanism of the whispered, and of 
the vocal elements is the same ; and the places of the several whispered ele- 
ments are fixed points of the scale, a record of these intonated articulations 
might perhaps lead to a recovery, if lost, of the sounds of the vowel-symbols of 
the natural voice. 

For example, suppose the fixed place and order of the whispered elements, 
together with the parts of the vocal organs and their actions, to be described. 
By assuming the known position and action of those parts in producing an ele- 
ment, and expiring at the same time, the designed articulation would be 
effected. Now any one whispered element being found, its place on the scale is 
also found ; and the fixed place of this element being known, the rest, by their 
order of upward and downward discrete intonation, must necessarily be found. 
Thus the pronunciation of the seven whispered tonics may be ascertained. But 



OF THE VOICE. 149 

The pitch of the sufflated whisper appears to be made in the 
same manner as that of the articulated. For in rising through 
the scale, this sufflation has a husky resemblance to the "whis- 
pered elements ; oo-ze being the lowest, and e-xe the highest. 
The sufflated whisper is employed to form the tune of the Jews- 
harp. As the peculiar vibration of air which constitutes the pitch 
of the sufflated element, passes over the tongue of the instrument, 
this tongue, it would seem, vibrates in unison with it. It is owing 
to the difficulty of articulating the intermediate artificial ele- 
ments so to call them, and of fixing their exact place, and con- 
sequently of intonating the full discrete scale of sufflation, that 
even a good musical ear, is rarely able on first trials, to hit accu- 
rately, more than the third, fifth, and octave, on the scale of 
this simple instrument. 

The pitch of whistling is also produced by the same mechan- 
ism : since in this case as well as in that of sufflation and of 
articulation, a thin rod passed into the corner of the mouth by 
depressing the tongue, destroys the power both of articulation, 
and of* ascending the scale. And further, there is in the low- 
est and the highest note of whistling, as well as in those of 

the whispered and the vocal tonics have respectively the same mechanism. It 
would therefore be required, only to direct the stream of vocality through this 
mechanism, and thus to convert the whisper into vocality ;* in order to have the 
recovered knowledge of the tonics, as they were used in a language, of which 
the phonetic means of recognition had been lost. 

I The interesting discoveries and suggestions by Young, and his coadjutors, of 
the vocal elements of the old Egyptians, hidden so long under their peculiar 
symbols ^ were the happy result of the record of a few proper names: and the 
subsequent full developments by the sagacious and indefatigable Champollion, 
could not have been effected without the aid of the verbal sounds of the old 
Egyptian language, still represented in Coptic writing. 

We here otter a passing hint, for the recovery of lost vowel sounds in any lan- 
guage, founded on the unalterable character, and the instinctive uses of the human 
voice: and if the above account of the pitch of whisper, is given upon cor- 
rect observation : it shows a curious anomaly on the subject of the mechanism 
of the vocal scale ; and intimates, that we are not yet full masters of the physi- 
ology of speech. 

Witb regard to the consonants, we must keep in mindj their obvious and 
describablc mechanism in the natural voice, would if recorded, allow a recovery 
of their phonetic character. 



150 THE MECHANISM 

sufflation, a quality of sound however obscure, resembling 
respectively the articulated oo-ze and e-ve. Closing the mouth 
destroys the articulation of whisper and of the natural voice, 
together with the pitch of the three forms of whisper ; while 
with the mouth closed, the whole scale may be accurately 
hummed in the natural voice. The shrillness of whistling seems 
to be made by the aperture between the lips. On this subject 
we might inquire if the intonation of the scale of wind instru- 
ments is not in some cases produced altogether by the pitch of 
sufflated whisper ; in others, by its combination with the effect 
of a varied position of the lips, of a varied force of breath, and 
of the varied ventages or stops. It is well known, that the 
first seven notes of the key of D on the flute, and their corres- 
ponding octaves are severally note and octave, made by the 
same stop. The difference of pitch between a note and its 
octave in this case is produced, not perhaps, by the position of 
the lips, nor by the force of breath, but by a difference in pitch 
of the sufflated whisper. It is perhaps, the same with the 
notes of the flageolet and clarionet.* 

The Subtonic elements when whispered, are individually inca- 
pable of the variations of pitch. Have they like the whispered 
tonics, relatively to each other, different places in the scale ? 

In order to perceive clearly the peculiar character of pitch 
above described, we must, in executing the articulated whisper 
be careful to make the elements as it were, at the back of the 
mouth ; thereby to avoid falling into the sufflation, and the 
whistle, that have their formative causes nearer the lips. 

The Atonies have singly, no variation of pitch ; and if they 
have relations to each other on the scale, they are of no import- 
ance in speech. 

The voice now to be described, is not perhaps in its mechan- 
ism, different from the natural ; but is rather to be regarded as 
an eminent degree of fulness, clearness, and smoothness in 
quality j and this may be either native or acquired. 

*It might be inquired, whether the facility in executing the third, fifth, and 
octave, on all mouthed instruments, as well as in the voice, is not connected 
with the use of the peculiar scale of articulated whisper. 



OF THE VOICE. 151 

The limited analysis, and vague history of speech by the an- 
cients, and the further confusion of the subject by commentators 
upon them, leave us in doubt whether the Latin phrase, ' os ro- 
tundum j' used more to our purpose in its ablative, ' ore rotundo,' 
by Horace, in complimenting Grecian eloquence 3 referred to 
the construction of periods, the predominance or position of 
vowels, or to quality of voice. Whatever may have been the 
original signification of the phrase, the English term ' roundness 
of tone,' specifying as we may suppose, the kind or quality, 
seems to have been derived from it. 

He who, by observing merely the sound of the voice has 
learned, for he must learn, to admire its essential fulness 3 may 
remember how slowly he came to the perception of its deliberate 
dignity. Nor will he deny, that its peculiar quality would have 
earlier attracted his attention, had it been distinguished by a 
proper oratorical name. On the basis of the Latin phrase, I 
have constructed the term Orotund j to designate that assemblage 
of attributes which constitutes the highest character of the 
speaking voice. 

By the Orotund, or adjectively the Orotund voice, I mean a 
natural, or improved manner of uttering the elements with a 
fulness, clearness, strength, smoothness, and if I may make the 
word, a sub-sonorous quality ; rarely heard in ordinary speech, 
and never found in its highest excellence, except through long 
and careful cultivation. 

By Fulness of voice, I mean a grave and hollow volume, re- 
sembling the hoarseness of a common cold. 

By Clearness, a freedom from aspiration, nasality, and vocal 
murmur.* 

By Strength, a satisfactory loudness or audibility. 

By Smoothness, a freedom from all reedy or guttural harsh- 
ness. 

By a Sub-sonorous quality, its muffled resemblance to the 
resonance of certain musical instruments. 

* By this last term, I mean an obscuring accompaniment of sound, as if the 
whole of the voice had not been made-up into articulation. It is not aa unfre- 
quent cause of indistinctness in speakers. 



152 THE MECHANISM 

I know how difficult it is to make such descriptions definite, 
without audible illustration. Perhaps the best means for in- 
struction is to excite attention by terms ; to convey the subject 
of these terms as nearly as possible, in figurative language ; 
and to leave the recognition of the thing described to the sub- 
sequent observation of the learner. The same audible relation- 
ships that suggested the metaphor to its inventor, may in due 
time lead others to acknowledge the aptness of the illustration.* 

The mechanical structure and action that produce the orotund 
are to me, after much inquiry, unknown. During its utterance, 
we may perceive a motion and contraction of the back parts of 
the mouth, different from the action of those parts under the 
colloquial voice. But these indications of a cause are so slight 
and so indefinite, that they do not at present appear to justify 
more than this general notice. In our ignorance of the mech- 
anism of speech we are not even able to decide, whether the 
orotund is only an improved quality of the natural voice, or the 
effect of its own peculiar cause. It was said above 3 the falsette, 
or something hoarsely like it, is practicable within the range of 
the natural voice, below the place of the 4 false note :' and thus 
the cause of the orotund may be the same as that of the reduced, 
or as it may be called, the Basso-falsette ; for this has some- 
what of the full, hollow, and sub-sonorous effect, ascribed to 
the acquired orotund. 

* Reverberations may furnish some idea of two of the qualities of the orotund 
voice. Thus vaulted ceilings and coved recesses often give a sub-sonorous 
echo ; and speaking with the mouth within an empty vessel produces a hollow 
fulness. One of the best instances I ever heard, of a modification of the human 
voice into a full, hollow, and sub-sonorous, quality, was from a boy who had 
sportfully got into a large copper alembic. 

It may be worth thinking upon, whether the brazen and the earthen vases, 
which were somehow formed, and then somehow set, within the masonry of the 
seats of Greek theatres, but of which we know so little 3 were not designed, with 
perhaps the co-operation of the Mask, to modify the voice, to the sub-sonorous 
quality, and hollow fulness of the orotund ; as well as to increase its force, and 
to return a concord to its pitch. The speaking-trumpet affords though not 
agreeably, an illustration of the qualities above described : and could the bugle, 
or the organ diapason be made to articulate, it would show the highest measure 
of that fulness, and sub-sonorous effect, which in distant similarity constitute 
the character of the orotund voice. 



OF THE VOICE. 153 

Connected with the subject of that improved quality of the 
singing-voice, called by vocalists ' Pure Tone,' there are several 
terms used to describe the mechanical causes of its different 
characters and qualities. Among these, the causations implied 
by the phrases ' voce di testa,' and * voce di petto,' or the voice 
from the head, and from the chest, must be considered as not 
yet manifest in physiology ; and the notions conveyed by them 
must be hung up beside those metaphorical pictures, which with 
their characteristic dimness or misrepresentation, have been in 
all ages, substituted for the unattainable delineations of the 
real processes of nature. 

There is a harsh quality of voice called Guttural j produced by 
a vibratory current of the air, between the sides of the pharynx 
and the base of the tongue, when apparently brought into contact 
above the glottis. If then the term 'voice from the throat' 
which has been one of the unmeaning or indefinite designations 
of vocal science, were applied to this guttural quality, it would 
precisely assign a locality to the mechanism. 

Although I have not hesitated to acknowledge my ignorance 
of the mechanism of the orotund, I know that its function 
wherever performed, may yet be subjected to the will. And 
as the best and only pure instances of this voice are the result 
of cultivation, I here propose some elementary means by which 
it may be acquired. 

It might seem to be sufficient for a teacher of elocution to 
exemplify the orotund j that his pupil might imitate it. Vocalists 
in their lessons on Pure Tone do little more. But singing has 
long been an Art ; and its many votaries have rendered the 
public familiar with its leading terms and principles, and ac- 
customed the ear to the peculiarities of its practice. While 
elocution appears to be with the vast majority, no more than a 
brutal instinct; by which, some only low, bleat, bark, mew, 
whinny, chatter and bray a little better than others. In des- 
cribing therefore, without the opportunity of illustrating, it 
becomes necessary to address the pupil, as if lie had no princi- 
ples to help his understanding, nor exemplified sounds to satisfy 
if. In this ease, it is desirable to let him teach himself, 
11 



154 THE MECHANISM 

by referring to functions of the voice, familiar to him both by 
daily exercise, and name. When the scholastic world shall 
understand our history of the speaking voice, and apply it to 
practice j the Educated Class, in their community of knowledge, 
will learn the good things of elocution from one another ; chil- 
dren will catch the proprieties of speech from well-taught 
parents ; and many a topic of this work, which I have labored 
perhaps in vain, to make at this time perspicuous, may here- 
after, from the unsought enlightening of surrounding knowledge, 
seem to be perspicuous in itself. 

With studious attention, we perceive two different forms of 
respiration ; one being a continued stream of air throughout 
the whole time of expiration ; the other consisting in the issue 
of breath by short iterated jets. The first is that of ordinary 
breathing, panting, sighing, groaning, and sneezing. The 
second is employed in laughter, crying, and speech.* 

By a command over the muscles of respiration, the speaking- 
breath is frugally dealt out to successive syllables, in limited 
portions appropriate to the time and force of each ; thus guard- 
ing against the necessity of frequent inspirations : while at the 
same time, these momentary pauses between syllables as well 
as words, allow an opening of the radical for articulation, and 
instant opportunities for recovering the breath. 

The act of coughing is either a series of short abrupt efforts, 
in expiration ; or of one continued impulse which yields-up the 
whole of the breath. This last forms one of the means for 
acquiring the orotund voice. The single impulse of coughing 
is an abrupt utterance of one of the short tonic vocalities, fol- 
lowed by a continuation of the atonic breathing 7i, till the expi- 
ration is exhausted. Let this compound function, consisting 
of the exploded tonic vocality and the aspiration, be changed 

* Laughter and Crying will be particularly noticed hereafter. 

Sighing and Groaning are expirations of similar time; one being an atonic 
or whispered element, the other a tonic vocality. 

Sneezing is a rapid expiration abruptly begun ; and generally producing one 
of the elements. 

I say nothing here of the various forms of inspiration connected with 
these acts. 



OF THE VOICE. 155 

to an entire vocality, by omitting the sharp abruptness of the 
cough, and continuing the tonic in place of the aspiration. 
The sound thus produced, will with proper cultivation, lead 
to that full and sub-sonorous quality, here denominated the 
orotund. 

This contrived effort of coughing when freed from abruptness, 
is like the voice of Gaping ; for this has a hollow and sub- 
sonorous vocality, very different from the colloquial utterance 
of tonic sounds. It may be exemplified by uttering the tonic 
a-we, with the mouth widely extended ; and by speaking, as 
far as it is possible, in a gaping articulation. 

When the pupil can effect this entire vocality of the artificial 
cough, if it may be thus distinguished from the usual cough -> 
which, with its quick explosion, is in part vocality and part 
aspiration j let him practice it sufficiently, yet avoiding the 
initial abruptness, and he will not only acquire facility in exe- 
cuting it, but its clearness and smoothness will be thereby 
improved. Let the voice be herein exercised by rising and 
falling through the concrete scale, on each of the tonic ele- 
ments j drawing out the vocality to the utmost extent of expira- 
tion. Then let trials be made on the syllabic combinations.* 

Being able to execute the tonic elements and single syllables 
in the orotund, the pupil is not therefore fully prepared to 
speak continuously in it : and on attempting to utter a sentence 
in this voice, his colloquial manner returns. The cause of this 
may be understood, by recollecting the distinction between the 
two kinds of expiration. For though he may be able to exe- 
cute the orotund on single syllables, in the continuous stream 
of vocality, he has yet to learn the use of that voice, with those 
interrupted jets of expiration, which are essential to easy and 
agreeable speech. Continued practice however, with a gradual 
increase in the number of syllables, will render his interrupted 
expiration of the orotund, as easy as that of common speech. 

*This process of forcing out the breath to the seeming exhaustion of the 
lungs, is apt to produce giddiness of the head. Care should therefore be taken, 
to avoid continuing the exercise of the voice too long in this manner; and to 
desist for the time, when that aifection comes on. 



156 THE MECHANISM 

Although he may then be able to utter any number of suc- 
cessive syllables, by interrupted jets of this voice, yet, from 
having therein, no ability to vary the intervals, the manner of 
their succession will be monotonous : he will have no power of 
expressive intonation, and will be unable to make the proper 
close at the end of a sentence. Repeated practice will give 
correctness and variety on these points, and the management 
of the orotund, for the impressive and elegant purposes of 
speech will in time, be no more difficult than that of the collo- 
quial voice. 

The method of gradually acquiring the orotund is similar to 
our instinctive progress through the successive periods of speech. 
The cries of infants are made on the continued stream of vocal- 
ity. It is a long time before they employ the interrupted 
expiration. The first utterance of the child is by an appor- 
tionment of a single syllable to a breath. By a preparatory 
exercise in the interrupted jets of laughter and crying, the 
command over expiration, and the habit of perfect speech is 
acquired. The same kind of monosyllabic breath, employed in 
infant articulation, and in acquiring the orotund, occurs in the 
debility of age, in pulmonary oppression, and in cases of pros- 
tration from disease ; for here the utterance frequently consists 
of but one, or at most two syllables to an act of expiration. 
The condition is similar in panting from violent exercise ; the 
voluntary command over the interrupted jets of expiration 
being therein lost. 

The orotund is possessed in various degrees of excellence by 
eminent Actors ; yet being a muscular function, not necessarily 
connected either with mind or ear, we often hear it, in those of 
a humble class. The state of mere animal instinct in which 
Actors have chosen to keep themselves, with regard to the uses 
of the voice, must convince us 3 they can have no systematic 
purpose, nor indeed any rational means for improving it. There 
is, however, one circumstance in theatrical speech, that may 
undesignedly produce in time, the full volume and sub-sonorous 
quality of the orotund. I mean the practice of vociferating, 
seemingly required by the extent of the House, by the deaf 



OF THE VOICE. 157 

taste of the audience, and by the poetical rant and bombast of 
what are called ' stock acting tragedies.' In addition, there- 
fore, to the previously described means for acquiring the oro- 
tund, I shall, in a few words, point out another method suggested 
by the vehement efforts of histrionic speech. 

Let the reader make an expiration on the interjection hah, 
in the voice of whisper, with a widely extended mouth, and 
with a duration sufficient to press all the air from the lungs. 
Then let the whisper in this process be changed to vocality. 
This vocality, like that of gaping, will have the hoarse fulness 
and sub-sonorous quality of the orotund. The forcible exertion 
of this kind of voice constitutes Vociferation ; for vociferation 
is the utmost effort of the natural voice, as the shriek or yell is 
of the falsette. Actors who affect the first rank in their 
art, are often by energy of passion urged to a degree of force, 
which produces the mixture of vocality and aspiration, in the 
interjection hah ; and it will be shown in a future section, that 
the junction of a certain degree of aspiration with the tonic 
elements, is one of the means of earnest and forcible expres- 
sion. The frequent occurrence of exaggerated passion and 
language in the drama, joined to the effort required by the 
dimensions of a Theatre, induces the habit of interjective expi- 
ration, which exerted through a wide extension of the mouth, 
leads the speaker to the attainment of the orotund, if his voice 
is capable of it. 

It must not be supposed that the full, hollow, and sub-sono- 
rous orotund is always of the same purity. It varies in its 
degrees of force and fulness ; and is sometimes slightly infected 
with aspiration, nasality, vocal murmur, or guttural harshness. 

If it should be asked ■; what advantage is gained by the care 
and labor here enjoined, for acquiring this improved quality of 
the speaking voice, it may be answered $ 

First The mere sound is more tunable than that of the 
common voice. Compared with the full and sub-sonorous 
character of a well-timed orotund, there are voices with as little 
even of a hint of music in them, as the noise of a hammer on a 
block. This quality, BO impressive with its dignity of volume, 



158 THE MECHANISM 

often catches the ear and approbation of those who are quite 
insensible to the agency of pause, quantity, and intonation. I 
have known the single influence of an orotund voice give exten- 
sive fame to an actor, who in more essential points of good 
reading, was even below mediocrity. It is this quality which 
dignifies the other excellencies of speech. In the voice of 
women it is most obvious and delightful. I refer to their 
speech only, not to the quality of the lower notes of their con- 
tralto in song. 

Second. The orotund is fuller in volume, and purer in qual- 
ity than the common voice ; and as the latter gives a delicate 
attenuation to the vanishing movement, the former with no less 
appropriate effect, displays the stronger body of the radical. 

Third. Its pure and impressive vocality gives distinctness 
to pronunciation ; and when completely formed is free from the 
dulness created by nasality or aspiration ; the characteristic 
offensiveness of which is shown by their union in Snoring. 

Fourth. It exerts a greater degree of articulative and 
expressive power than the common voice. In this respect it 
has the character of things perfect in their kind. The ear 
seems filled with its volume, and asks for no more. There is 
too, on the part of the speaker himself, that conscious satisfac- 
tion which accompanies the full energizing of a function ; for 
here nature herself seems to acknowledge j the voice has done 
its whole duty. Those who by cultivation of the singing-voice, 
have brought its tone to the utmost extent of fulness and purity, 
will admit the importance of practice and perseverance, in pre- 
paring the voice for the purposes of speech. Compared with 
the power and facility of an endowed and high-taught Vocalist, 
common instinctive efforts in song seem to be not much removed 
from the imbecility of paralysis. 

Fifth. The orotund, from the discipline of cultivation, is 
more under command than the common voice ; and is conse- 
quently more efficient and precise in the production of long 
quantity ; in varying the degrees of force ; in executing the 
tremulous scale ; and in fulfilling all the other purposes of 
expressive intonation. 



OF THE VOICE. 159 

Sixth. It is the only kind of voice appropriate to the mas- 
ter-style of epic and dramatic reading. Through it alone, the 
actor consummates an outward sign of the grandeur and energy 
of his thought and passion. Employed in what will presently 
be described as the Diatonic Melody, the impressive authority 
and dignified elegance of this voice, exceed as measurably the 
meaner sounds of ordinary discourse, as the superlative pictures 
of the poet, and the broad wisdom of the sage, respectively 
transcend the poor originals of life and all their wretched poli- 
cies. It is the only voice capable of fulfilling the solemnity of 
the Church-service, and the majesty of Shakespeare and 
Milton. 

Finally, as the orotund does not destroy the ability to use 
at will the common voice, it may be imagined how their con- 
trasted employment may add the resource of vocal light and 
shade, if we may so speak, to the means of oratorical coloring 
and design. 

The mechanism of the Tremulous movement of the voice does 
not appear to be connected with the visible parts of the fauces ; 
although there is a gurgling noise somewhat resembling it, pro- 
duced by a vibration of the uvula, when brought into contact 
with the base of the tongue, in the expiration of the elements 
e-\c and e-rr. I leave it for future observers to ascertain; 
whether the tremulous rise and fall may not be referred to the 
organic cause of the variations of pitch, in the natural and 
falsette voices. 

I have thus endeavored to set forth what ice do not 'know of 
the mechanism of speech. The subject of the voice is divided 
into two branches. Anatomy and Physiology. The first em- 
brace- a description of the vocal organs. The second, a history 
of the functions performed by that organization. The anato- 
mical structure is recorded to the utmost visible and microscopic 
minuteness : while the history of those audible functions which 
it is the design of this work to developej and which, by the 
Strictest meaning of the term, constitute the vocal physiology : 
has in a great measure been disregarded, under a belief that 



160 THE MECHANISM OF THE VOICE. 

these functions are altogether beyond the power of analytic 
perception. 

While disregarding the physiological analysis of quality, 
force, and pitch of vocal sound, writers have endeavored to 
ascertain only what parts of the organization produce these 
several phenomena ; and seem to have almost restricted the 
name of physiology to their vain and contradictory fancies 
about these mechanical causations. Hence in the elocutional 
physiology, if we may so call it, of the organs of speech, there 
is little of that rooted opinion, which in most cultivated sciences 
contends with an original inquirer, in every attempt to sacrifice 
ignorance and error to the cause of truth. Whereas the subject 
of mechanical causation, like all other matters of theory, has 
become doctrinal and divided ; and the inquirer has here not 
only to strive at reaching the secrecy of nature, but harder still, 
has to encounter the obstinacy of sectaries whose opinions 
have grown into pride, by their unyielding contentions with 
each other. 

When the observative reader has finished this volume, he will 
perceive that in part of this fifth section, and occasionally else- 
where, I was unavoidably occupied with the contestable opinions 
of men ; but that, generally, I was endeavoring to enlarge our 
views of the human voice, by consulting and recording the 
Oracular voice of Nature : a contrast that may well induce a 
lover of truth and brevity to exclaim 3 Happy is he, who desiring 
to extend the circle of knowledge, comes to a subject which the 
fictional finger of the school has never touched. 



THE EXPRESSION OF SPEECH. 161 

SECTION VI. 

Of the Expression of Speech. 

In the preceding sections we have explained the terms of the 
five modes of speech, with many of their forms and varieties ; 
have described these modes and forms, as they appear in the 
radical and vanish, the alphabetic elements, and in the con- 
struction of syllables ; and as far as accurately ascertained, 
have shown how the Organs of the Voice mechanically produce 
the phenomena of these modes and forms. These explanations 
and descriptions give a preparatory view of the functions of 
speech ; and embrace all the generalities required by an intel- 
ligent and attentive reader, in pursuing the subsequent details 
of this work. 

Speech is employed to declare the States and Purposes of the 
mind. These are first known to us as Ideas ; and ideas are 
divided into Thoughts, and Passions. According to this view, 
the design of speech is to declare our thoughts and passions. 
If we acknowledge this distinction in the states of mind 3 the 
voice must, by a like ordination have distinct means or signs 
for declaring them. It is therefore of great importance to 
ascertain, what are the different means in the voice, for declar- 
ing in one case, the plain and simple condition of thought ; and 
in the other, the excited mental condition of passion : for these 
will form the leading divisions of our present subject. 

Schoolmen make a vague distinction between thoughts and 
passions, and common usage has adopted their language. This 
is not a place for controversy ; nor is it necessary to inquire 
deliberately, whether the above distinction refers to the essential 
character of the states of mind, or to their degrees. Some 
may be disposed to consider thought and passion as varied 
degrees only, of intensity in ideas ; since the function, noted as 
a plain unex cited thought in one, has in another, from its 
urgency, and without apparent specific difference, the active 
power of a passion; and since in the same person at different 
times, like circumstances produce, according to the varied BUS- 



162 THE EXPRESSION OP SPEECH. 

ceptibility of excitement, the mental condition of either a passion 
or a thought. Perhaps it might not be difficult to show, that 
these states of the mind have many points in common ; and 
that no definite line of demarkation can be drawn between them. 
But however inseparably involved in their mingling affinity 3 the 
states of mind in thought, and in passion, are in their more re- 
mote relationships, either in kind or degree distinguishably 
different. 

Corresponding to this difference between thought and passion, 
the vocal means for declaring their extreme distinctions are, as 
we shall learn hereafter, no less strongly marked : while their 
assimilating forms prevent a strict line of separation between 
them. In uttering, as a polite or merely thoughtful request, 
the phrase 3 give me that hooJc, we use quite a different intonation 
. and force, from that employed on the same words, as a passion- 
ate and rude imperative. But gradually add earnestness to 
the request, and gradually moderate the command : and as the 
states of mind become identical, so will the voices, if properly 
representing those changes. Notwithstanding this manifest 
difference of meaning in the terms Thought and Passion 3 we 
have not, in our ignorance of the analytic history of speech, felt 
the want of a discriminative nomenclature, and consequently 
have no brief corresponding terms, for the vocal signs that 
severally represent them. Books on elocution have indeed 
vaguely employed the word Expression, to signify the voice of 
passion. But they furnish us with no single or appropriate 
term for the plain declaration of simple or passionless thought ; 
which as we proceed in our history, will be essentially required. 

Until physical science shall direct a penetrating and diffusive 
light upon the reciprocal influence between the mind and the 
voice, all will be desultory and confused. Thus the term 
Expression, though sufficient for the indefinite elocution of the 
Orator and the Player 3 is not restrictive; for it is as common 
to speak of the expression of an unexcited thought, or meaning 
in language, as of the expression of its passion. This want of 
precise distinction between the states of thought and passion, 






THE EXPRESSION OF SPEECH. 163 

has been one cause why we have no precise terms for vocal 
signs to denote this distinction. 

Metaphysics, which has been in a great measure, the art of 
searching for the useless, and seeming to find the impossible 
relationships of things 3 has unfortunately been suffered, for it 
is a disaster, to spread its 'insane root,' within and throughout 
the subject of the mind 3 and has been so blindly groping in its 
absurd attempt to distinguish between Matter and Spirit 3 that 
it has not even imagined the manifest difference between the 
mental states of thought and passion, and consequently between 
the vocal signs which denote the difference. 

The Natural Science of speech requires the convenience and 
precision of a proper nomenclature, for the assignable distinc- 
tions of both the mind and the voice. New terms for these dis- 
tinctions might be taken from other languages ; yet as the 
plain- English spoken facts of this volume may to the calm 
philosopher, who should 'wonder at nothing,' be so repulsively 
strange 3 I am not disposed to strengthen the repulsion if avoid- 
able, by adding the further strangeness, of words adopted from 
a classic or a foreign tongue. Our divisions will therefore be 
marked by familiar English words, with terminative additions. 

Most of the inquiries into the subject of the human mind 
have produced little else than partizan contention in the schools 3 
and delusive self-conceit, about their own faculties, among the 
vulgar. This has kept the nomenclature of the conditions 
and uses of the mind, so indefinite or erroneous, as to confound 
every attempt, by strict observation, severally to arrange under 
its vague and variable terms, the directly related subjects of 
the mind and the voice. Should I then fail, or not do my best 
in this purpose, the reader, if not able to do his better best, 
may perhaps acknowledge the difficulty of the task. The 
states of mind, indefinitely called idea, thought, sentiment, 
emotion, feeling, and passion 3 whatever their different charac- 
ters or degrees, having never been reduced to order, and to 
elear definition j Ave will until a time of more accurate observa- 
tion, endeavor to embrace the imperfect design of those terms, 
within a nomenclature of greater compass and precision. 



164 THE EXPEESSION OF SPEECH. 

On a broad survey of these ideas, thoughts, sentiments, and 
passions, we perceive in their conditions and agencies, the dis- 
tinctions of a Plain and Quiet State of Mind; a state of 
Excitement ; and a state Between these extremes. We may 
then call the first of these states, that of Thought ; the middle 
state, Inter-thought ; the third, Passion : and for the relation- 
ships of these states to Language, make a corresponding divi- 
sion of the vocal signs, ordained by Nature severally to repre- 
sent them. In the detail of this arrangement, it may be 
necessary to refer to some of the topics of future sections, yet 
we shall use no term, without a present or previous explanation. 

The First state or condition of the mind is its simple per- 
ception of things, their actions, and relationships 3 with no 
reference to the exciting interests of human life. We apply to 
this state of plain idea, or thought, and to the vocal sign that 
denotes it, the term, TlwugJitive. Its vocal sign consists in the 
simple rise and fall and shorter wave of the interval of the 
second ; of an unobtrusive Quality ; with a moderate degree of 
Force ; and short syllabic Time or Quantity. 

The Second, or intermediate condition has that relation to 
human life, which excites moderately self-interesting reflections 
in the mind 3 and embraces dignity, pathos, awe, admiration, 
reverence, a serious sentiment, and other states congenial 
in character and degree with these. We call this condition of 
the mind, and its vocal signs, the Inter-thoughtive, but prefera- 
bly the Sentimentive or Reverentive. Its signs are variously 
the interval of the semitone, the second, occasionally the third 
and fifth, with their waves ; an extended time ; a full orotund 
quality ; with a moderate but dignified force. 

The Third condition has a more immediate and vivid refer- 
ence to human life, its reflective interests, and actions, through- 
out the impressive forms, degrees, and varieties of passion. 
We call this state of mind, and the signs which denote it, the 
Passionative. Its signs are the semitone, and wider rising and 
falling intervals, with their waves ; either a short, or an 
extended time ; a striking and varied quality ; abruptness ; with 
high degrees, and impressive forms of force. 



THE EXPRESSION OF SPEECH. 165 

I have in these divisions, used the terms Inter-thought, and 
Inter-thoughtive, briefly to denote, the intermediate condition 
between thought and passion ; but as these words are at first 
startling, and are not altogether exact, I will generally desig- 
nate the forms of this division of the mental state and its vocal 
signs, as Sentimentive, or Reverentive, and use the term 
Inter-thought, merely for brevity of phrase. 

These terms for the three divisions, do not as it appears, 
belong to our language ; and thus conveying no other meaning 
than here ascribed to them, cannot be confounded or mistaken : 
while their final particle including the idea of agency, properly 
designates the influence of the state of mind on the vocal sign, 
and that of the vocal sign on the ear. Thus, the thoughtive 
state produces the thoughtive sign 3 and the thoughtive sign 
produces a thoughtive state of mind in the hearer. The case 
is similar, in the influence of the inter-thoughtive and the pas- 
sionative states respectively on their vocal signs j and of their 
signs, on the hearer. The effect of the signs of the inter- 
thoughtive, or as I would call it, the sentimentive or the reve- 
rentive 3 and of the passionative divisions, constitutes, in its 
varieties and degrees, what we have named, at the head of this 
section, the Expression of Speech. 

We have thus far considered only the single or individual 
sign, and the single or momentary state of mind that directs it. 
This state of mind may be continued, and with its sign, extended 
throughout the current of discourse. The continuation of the 
same state of mind and of its appropriate vocal sign forms a 
current manner or Style. Of this we make three divisions. 
Each consists of a succession of its own peculiar constituents of 
mental state, and vocal sign; and may be severally called, the 
Thoughtive, Inter-thoughtive, and Passionative Style of reading 
and speech. The reason for thus taking a separate view of the 
individual instance of the state of mind, and of its vocal sigiij 
and of their continued style j and for applying the same nomen- 
clature in each casej is, that we shall sometimes speak sepa- 
rately of a single state of mind, and its sign; and of its current 



166 THE EXPRESSION OF SPEECH. 

style : and as the style is only a continuation of this single 
state and sign, it is proper to apply the same terms to identical 
constituents in the two cases. 

In thus dividing the subject of the states of mind and their 
vocal signs ; and in denoting the individuality of these states 
and their signs, as well as their succession in a current style, 
by the same terms j we offer a simple, and for present practical 
purposes, a sufficient outline of a classification of the relation- 
ships between the mind and the voice. And were we describing 
nature, to those only who can throw-aside the habit of an old, 
limited, and distracting nomenclature, for one more recent and 
precise, we would not at this time, encumber its simplicity. 
But the attempts of the metaphysical schools to discriminate 
the states of the mind, and the vocal signs, are in greater part, 
so visionary, variable, indefinite, and erroneous j and their 
nomenclature, both of state and sign, so vague and superficial j 
that I shall endeavor to give them more meaning and precision, 
by connecting some of them as synonyms with the threefold 
analytic divisions here proposed. 

The term Narrative, is in common language, but with no 
reference to our proposed distinctions j employed for the plain 
statement, declaration, or affirmation of a fact, and of its 
causes and consequences ; or for describing the course of an 
event. These purposes not requiring force, or other passion- 
ative expression, denote, the state of mind, we call thoughtive ; 
and thus direct the thoughtive vocal sign. The narrative then, 
together with the simply declarative, affirmative, descriptive, 
inexpressive, and unimpassioned may all be classed with our 
thoughtive division, both as individual state and signj and as a 
continued style. That is, there may be, an individual narra- 
tive state of mind, and an individual narrative sign 3 and a con- 
tinued narrative state of mind, and a continued narrative sign 3 
and in like manner of these other terms. 

There are several terms in common use, indefinitely signify- 
ing states of mind, which with slight alteration, I would class 
witli our sentimentive and reverentive. These are the senti- 
mental, if this word has a meaning, the gravely pathetic, the 









THE EXPRESSION OF SPEECH. 1G7 

dignified, the respectful, the supplicative, and the penitential ; 
for these have conventional meanings, which seems to corres- 
pond in character and degree, to the state of mind we have 
ascribed to our second division ; and which may if required, be 
used synonymously with its term, Inter-thoughtive, in both its 
individual designation and its current style. That is, there 
may be a dignitive state and sign, and a dignitive continued 
style ; and in like manner of the other terms. For synony- 
mous classification with the Passionative division, common lan- 
guage furnishes the terms, impassioned, expressive, the earn- 
estly interrogative, exclamatory, derisive, contemptuous, and 
others of the same vehement family ; together with the numerous 
conventional terms for passion ; since these variously employ 
the several impressive forms of quality, time, force, abruptness, 
and intonation. The terms Rhetorical and Declamatory are 
sometimes used with reference to an expressive state of mind, 
and to energy of voice. If they were classed with our passion- 
ative division, it might perhaps render their meaning less 
indefinite. 

The passionative states of mind, as just remarked, are also 
designated by the conventional terms for human passion of 
every kind. Some of these will in a future section, be referred 
to their appropriate modes and forms, among the named and 
measurable constituents of Expression in speech. 

I have not referred those two common terms for an indeter- 
minate state of mind 3 Emotion and feeling 3 to a place in our 
arrangement, since the former is not assignable by me at least, 
to either of the expressive divisions ; nor with reason, to the 
thoughtive ; while the latter will be hereafter applied to the 
state of mind connected with the vocal expression of song. 
With this suggestive outline of the relations between mind and 
language, we leave future observation, to class under our three- 
fold division, if approved or corrected, whatever common terms, 
we may have overlooked; but which broader and more accurate 
investigation of the states of mind and of the voice, may assign 
to their proper places. 

From this view we perceive j the full and effective philosophy of 



168 THE EXPEESSION OF SPEECH. 

elocution embraces two leading considerations. The first, that 
every individual vocal sign may convey a single state of thought, 
inter-thought, or passion. The second, that the several states 
of mind, with their signs, when successively continued, form a 
current style of discourse 3 or what will be described more par- 
ticularly, in a future section, as the Drift of the voice. 

With all our definitions and divisions, it will be perceived in 
the course of this work, how difficult it is to draw a definite line 
of separation between the thoughtive, the sentimentive or rever- 
entive, and the passionative states of mind 3 and between the 
signs which severally represent them ; and how the mental as 
well as the vocal differences pass, by indistinguishable shades, 
into each other. 

It is not therefore to be supposed 3 these several drifts of 
thought, inter-thought, and passion, with their respective signs, 
are used separately, and kept distinct from each other ; by 
which the ear might become familiar with their several peculiar 
characters 3 and thus perceive their details, through a compara- 
tive observation of the general contrasts, and particular differ- 
ences between their various styles. Were this the case, the 
marked vocal effect of the different drifts, each with its peculiar 
character both in reading and speech 3 would have early drawn 
philosophic, if not vulgar attention to the striking differences 
between their general currents 3 then to the differences of the 
individual signs that constitute the different currents 3 and thus 
to a full analysis of speech. 

Yet even in the natural ordination of the voice, and more 
conspicuously in its corruptions, the course of a drift is not 
strictly continuous and identical with itself; other individual 
states of mind, with their vocal signs, and other drifts being 
occasionally and variously interspersed in all oratorical and 
common discourse ; and this by confounding irresolute observa- 
tion, has been a principal cause why the particulars of the true 
relationships between the mind and the voice were not long 
ago clearly perceived and named. We have in the course 
of what our vain-glorious, yet disputable assumption calls 
Civilization, so disorderly mixed up our thoughts with our pas- 






THE EXPRESSION OF SPEECH. 109 

sions, and our passions with each other, that Nature, disturbed 
perhaps, by human error, in the design and fulfilment of her 
final causes j has to the transient observer, presented an appa- 
rent confusion, in the connection between the mind and the 
voice. And yet true in part to the law of adapting speech to 
thought and passion, she still shows occasional and striking 
examples of her ordinations ; which should have enabled others, 
and which have directed the Author, to make, however imper- 
fectly, the divisions, and nomenclature here proposed. 

Let us under another view, recapitulate our account of the 
character, applications, and transitions of the different vocal 
currents of discourse. 

When one or more sentences describe an object or a piece of 
machinery, or narrate the course of an event, it forms the 
purely thoughtive, narrative, simply affirmative, or descriptive 
style. A current of similar extent, on some dignified, plaintive, 
reverential, or solemn declaration, in the Church Service 3 in 
epic, dramatic, and other elevated yet calmly expressive com- 
position 3 would be a pure instance of the reverentive or senti- 
mentive; while clauses and passages from vehement appeals in 
the Forum, from an excited scene on the Stage, from the furious 
liberty of temper at a universal-suffrage Election, and in the vocal 
uproar of a Volunteer Fireman's Law-permitted fight, would 
give both refined and vulgar examples of the passionative. These 
several styles or drifts, generally occur only in short sections 
of various extent, in the greater part of discourse. We may 
therefore have a drift of clauses, members, and whole sentences ; 
but rarely is half a page, and never a chapter, to be found ex- 
clusively in one continuous style. 

For. an illustration of the manner of transition from one drift 
to another, through the intermingled use of their several con- 
stituents: imagine the thoughtive or narrative with its simple 
second or tone, to have here and there, a word distinguished 
from the rest, by a more impressive interval; an extended time 
on the wave of the second; the full quality of the orotund, if 
availablej and you pass to the sentimentive or reverentive. 
Again, imagine the semitone, and wider intervals; various 
12 



170 THE EXPRESSION OF SPEECH. 

waves ; added force ; prolonged time ; peculiar quality ; and 
abruptness 3 to be brought into the reverentive, or to distinguish 
all its emphatic words ; and you rise to the highest forms of 
expression in the passionative style or drift. 

As the art of elocution is essentially founded on the state of 
the mind and its indication by the voice j the necessity of fre- 
quent reference to these agencies, requiring the frequent use of 
their terms j I shall, to avoid too near a repetition of them, vari- 
ously employ with the same meaning, the terms j state of mind; 
mental and intellectual state or condition ; perhaps the new 
word Mentivity, if allowed ; and when admissible, the word, 
state, alone. For the indication by the voice, I shall variously 
employ the terms j vocal, verbal, thoughtive, and expressive 
sign ; and when admissible the word, sign, alone. 

From the confused and distracted attempts, throughout scho- 
lastic ages, to make something out of the almost nothing of 
common knowledge on the phenomena of the voice j and from 
those fruitless attempts having produced a nearly universal 
opinion, that a discriminative knowledge of the ' tones ' of the 
voice is unattainable j I have solely by means of a different 
method of inquiry, been enabled to offer many important facts, 
and to propose for them a classification and nomenclature, which 
may lead Elocutionists to listen and hear for themselves ; and 
thus by a more extended observation, to suggest divisions and 
terms, more comprehensive and exact. Nature is always at 
work among us ; and though from indolence we may not choose 
to scrutinize her ordinations, and may not through fear of 
encountering a frowning difficulty, be willing to look her labors 
in the face j still the numberless unsuccessful endeavors to name, 
without perceiving, the wise adaptation of the various condi- 
tions of the mind to the various expressive modes of the voice j 
seem instinctively to show that her purposes, if even misunder- 
stood or perverted, have not been entirely lost sight-of nor for- 
gotten. I have therefore from the indefinite and groping 
nomenclature of the careless world, and of its equally careless 
metaphysicians, endeavored to gather what seemed to me might 
be taken, as approximate vulgar-synonyms to the terms of our 



THE EXPRESSION OF SPEECH. 



171 



views of the subject of the relationships between the mind and 
the voice. 

I here propose to assist the reader's attention and memory, 
by reducing the preceding divisions of the individual terms, and 
of the current style of Expression, to the following 3 

TABULAR VIEW. 



Condition 

or 

States of mind. 



Thoughtive 

or 

Unexcited state. 



Inter-thoughtive 

or 

Sentimentive 

and 

Reverentive 

state. 



Vocal Signs 

of 
those States. 



The simple rise and fall 
and shorter wave of the 
interval of the second ; 



Synonyms 

of old 

Conventional Terms. 



Narrative, simply de- 
claratory or affirmative ; 
descriptive ; dispassion- 



an unobtrusive quality ; a -J ate ; inexpressive ; unim- 
moderate degree of force; passioned; emotionless; 
and a short syllabic quan- I plain and even tone of 
[ tity. t voice. 



The semitone, the se- 
cond, occasionally the 
third and fifth with their 
waves; an extended time; 
a full orotund quality ; ( 

j„ ,i_,.„ u. * ,r ■ and expressive of awe and 

and a moderate but digni- 



Sentimental ; gravely 
pathetic; reverential; dig- 
nified ; respectful ; sup- 
"} plicative ; penitential : 



L fied force. 



admiration. 



r The semitone, and wi- 
der rising and falling in- 
Passionative tervals, with their waves ; 

or J either a short or extended 

Excited state. ] time; a striking and varied 
quality; abruptness; with 
high degrees and expres- 
sive forms of force. 



Impassioned ; expres- 
sive : earnestly interro- 
gative; declamatory; rhe- 
torical ; contemptuous ; 
derisive ; and the conven- 
tional terms for every ve- 
hement passion. 



I shall not indeed be always able to entirely satisfy myself, 
in the use of every term of the preceding divisions with their 
synonyms. But having given a new and far-reaching analysis : 
I new arrangement and nomenclature became necessary ; and 
however erroneous or imperfect it may be, the leading lines of 
the methodic survey may afford others, an example at least of 
a failure; which by the negative assistance of a rejected error, 
may help to remove some of the difficulty that might otherwise 
delay Buccess. Let me nevertheless, caution my readers, oot 
to rdy BO implicitly on the suspicions of an author against him- 



172 THE EXPRESSION OF SPEECH. 

self, as hastily to confirm his concessive and due distrust, of 
what wiser and assuring time may at length show to be worthy 
of adoption. 

Of all this essay, the arrangement I have been obliged to 
offer on the subject of expression, has perplexed me the most, 
and satisfied me least : since it aims to divide for the purpose 
of instruction, what Nature in her purposed agency, seems to 
have joined by the chain, or as we may here call it, the concrete 
line of all her creative transitions. In other parts of this work, 
I had, where happily no language existed, to make one for untold 
phenomena : in this, to encounter a desperate confusion in the 
language of the scholastic world, formed before it knew dis- 
tinctly what it had to name. 

The classifications of science were instituted in part, to assist 
the memory and imagination ; yet while they fulfil the purpose 
of communicating and preserving knowledge, they unfortunately 
sometimes produce the undesigned hindrance of its alteration 
or advancement, by creating a belief of its systematic comple- 
tion. Though the numberless revolutions in scientific arrange- 
ment are full of admonitions 3 we forget how often the fictitious 
affinities, and the distinctions of system have on the one hand, 
presumptuously united the intended divisions of nature, and 
on the other, broken the beautiful connection of her circle of 
truth. 

In submission to the necessities of instruction, I have 
attempted, by an arrangement, however imperfect, to distin- 
guish the several states of niindj and the several vocal signs 
that represent them ; with the hope that future inquiry may 
determine their real relationships, by a full and accurate his- 
tory of the mind, and of the voice. For we may as well suppose, 
all those works of usefulness are already accomplished, which 
are foretold by the powers of human observation, and the cal- 
culated promises of Science 3 as that those Delightful Arts, 
which employ while they regulate the imagination, have yet 
disclosed their coming grandeurs and graces, prefigured, under 
the future extension of knowledge and precept, in the Prophetic 
Book of Taste. Let us leave the seventh day of rest, to the 
holiday rejoicing of physicians, lawyers, priests, and politicians, 



THE EXPRESSION OF SPEECH. 173 

who look upon their disastrous creations, and cunning schemes 
for human misery, and pronounce them original, and finished, 
and good. Let them build strongly around the vaunted per- 
fection of their Theories, Codes, Councils, and Constitutions. 
Let them guard the ark of a forefather's wisdom, and proclaim 
its unalterable holiness to the people, for the safety, honor and 
emolument of the keeper. The great Contributions to Know- 
ledge, like the great and progressive Creations of Nature her- 
self, have never yet found and perhaps never will find, their 
day of rest ; while the renowned forefathers of many a work of 
usefulness as well as glory are, by the like merit or ambition 
which raised their own temporary greatness, transmuted to 
corrigible children, in the eye of the advancing labor of a 
later age. 

It has been alleged of the expression of speech, that a dis- 
crimination of its concealed and delicate agency, is beyond the 
scrutiny of the human ear. If the term human ear is sarcastic- 
ally used for that fruitlessly busy and slavish organ, which has 
so long listened for the clear voice of nature, amid the conflict- 
ing tumult of opinion and authority, we must admit and regret 
the truth of the assertion. But it is not true of a keen, 
industrious, and independent exercise of the senses; nor can it 
be affirmed without profanity, of that supreme power of obser- 
vation, deputed among the final causes of creation, for the 
effective gathering of truth, and the progressive improvement 
of mankind. 

Our conquests in knowledge must be the joint achievement of 
cautious, but free-minded and industrious Numbers, and of 
deliberate, patient, and unwasted Time. Leaving then to popu- 
lous futurity the gradual completion of the Work, I looked 
around for present assistance : and having, with more need 
than hope, yet with an untold purpose, consulted the views of 
others on the analytic means for delineating the voice of 
expression j I generally received some query like this: Is it 
possible to recognizo and measure all those delicate variations 
of sound, that have passed so long without detection, and that 
i) scarcely more amenable to sense than the atoms of air 00 



174 THE EXPRESSION OF SPEECH. 

■which they are made ? It is possible to do all this : and if we 
cannot ' Find the way ' for a victorious development of nature, 
Met us j' with the maxim, and in the contriving thought, and 
resolution of the great Carthagenian Captain 3 'let us Make 
one.' 

It will not be denied, that intonation, time, quality, and 
force of voice, under all their forms, constituting the expression 
of speech, may be distinctly heard ; nor will it be maintained 3 
there is the least liability, even in the common ear, to misap- 
prehend, or to confound the varied states of mind, they respec- 
tively convey. No : but it is objected, that the peculiar kind, 
the measurable degree, and the commingling variety of those 
forms cannot be distinguished. Since then the vocal move- 
ments thus distinctly audible, include all these conditions ; and 
since in speech, the states and purposes of the mind are so 
readily recognized under all their kinds, degrees, and combina- 
tions, I leave it to those who make the objection, to ask them- 
selves 3 if a full and clear discrimination of the vocal signs is 
not implied in that recognition. In truth, even the most deli- 
cate voices of thought and expression, though supposed to be 
imperceptible, are always distinctly heard ; and as far as a 
quick comprehension of their meaning may prove the assertion, 
are always recognized and measured, in the strictest sense of 
the word : but they have never been analytically perceived, and 
named. For even those who have pretended to observe, 
and to teach on the subject of the voice have as yet, no lan- 
guage for the discriminations, absolutely necessary in the 
explanation of speech, and every day unconsciously made, even 
by the popular ear. I propose to give a precise history of the 
vocal means for representing the various states of thought and 
of passion ; to point out their modes, forms, and varieties, and 
to assign a definite nomenclature to them. 

There is perhaps no vain confidence, in supposing the reader 
to be now well acquainted with the character of the radical and 
vanishing movement. This wide-reaching function of the voice, 
has been represented under its varied forms, in speech and 
song. We have traced it in the literal elements, and seen its 



THE PITCH OF THE VOICE. 175 

influence in directing the phenomena of syllables. I have yet 

to show its instrumentality in the various and delicate uses of 
expression : and if I shall he able thereby to unfold the princi- 
ples of this marvelous mystery of nature, it will be, by develop- 
ing some of the particulars of that greater marvel of agency, 
in -which a wise simplicity of means is employed throughout her 
profuse and never-wasteful creations. 

Five general divisions of the modes of vocal sound were made 
in the first section of this essay. In summary repetition, they 
are j Quality, or kind of voice ; Time, or the measure of its 
duration ; Force, or the variations of strength and weakness ; 
Abruptness, or an explosive utterance ; and Pitch, or the vari- 
ations of acuteness and gravity. It will be shown, that each of 
these general modes is inclusive of many forms and varieties, 
with their different degrees ; and that the now measurable 
thoughtive and passionative signs of speech, consist of the 
unmysterious use of the different forms and varieties of these 
modes, and of their different combinations with each other. 



SECTION VII. 

Of the Pitch of the Voice. 

The Mode of the voice we have now to consider, although 
not more essential than the others, in the constituency of 
Speech, has nevertheless, from our ignorance of its particular 
forms and uses, been a subject of wonder; and from our child- 
ish love of wonder lias become especially a subject of interest- 
ing inquiry. To this mode of Pitch belong the many forms 
and varieties of Intonation, or as they have been called in the 



176 THE PITCH 

schools of Rhetoric and Prosody, by a sort of prescriptive 
determination, the ' undiscoverable or unassignable Tones or 
accents of the voice.' 

The Greeks in their fondness for definition and division, were 
always disposed to go to the root of whatever knowledge they 
believed to have a root, and at the same time to be worthy of 
inquiry. They seem therefore, as we might infer from their want 
of mere logical curiosity 3 setting aside their neglect of observa- 
tion 3 to have considered a full analysis of speech, as impracti- 
cable, or as useless. Either from these or other causes, the 
subject so feebly attracted their attention, that we might be 
disposed to think they derived their knowledge of the Sliding 
or concrete function, from Egypt or from some earlier Eastern 
source. Had it been discovered in the school of Pythagoras, 
or of Aristoxenus, it does not seem probable, that having found 
this key to the entrance of Speech, they would have closed 
their hearing to what yet remained within the secrecy of 
nature : since, with a moderate degree of curiosity, and a very 
little further observation of the simple concrete, they would 
have perceived that important subdivision of its structure, 
which we have described as the Radical and Vanish. However 
this may have been, neither the Greeks nor the Romans, 
although apparently writing all they knew on the practical 
uses of the concrete accent 3 have left the least record of their 
opinions, their expectations, or their hopes on this subject, 
beyond the restricted limit of what they already knew. Yet 
indispensable as their discovery of the concrete was to the 
development of speech 3 it is certain, they never added to the 
first and simple idea of this accentual slide, the smallest item 
of discriminative analysis. The grammarians and commenta- 
tors of the Alexandrian, Bysantine, and of subsequent schools, 
in discussing the subject of Greek accent, never extended their 
ideas beyond the indefinite opinions of more ancient writers ; 
while still later authors and teachers, with the determined faith 
and worship of classical scholarship, believing it was not done 
by the Greeks, because it really could not be done at all, have 



OF THE VOICE. 177 

at last united in a general persuasion nay conviction, that any- 
further discovery is impossible.* 

* As Dionysius of Ilalicarnassus, in his treatise 'On the Arrangement of 
Words,' has described more particularly, the character and practical uses of 
this accent or inflection, than any other Greek or Roman writer j I shall, to 
show how limited and indefinite he is, give from his eleventh section, an extract 
of all he says on this point ; and shall insert in its course some explanatory 
parenthetic remarks. 

t There is in oratorical discourse, a kind of Tune, differing from that of Song, 
and (from the melody) of Music, only in degree, but not in kind or quality.' 
( We suppose he means that each employs intervals, but speech fewer, and those of 
less extent.) Immediately, following-up the idea, he adds : ' There is in oratori- 
cal discourse, (and in music,) the like tune, that charms the ear; the like 
rythmus, that sustains the voice; the like variety that excites attention; and a 
like conformity of the whole to its purpose ; the only difference being in the 
more and the less.' (That is, in the number and extent of the intervals.) 'In 
oratorical discourse, the tune of the voice is restricted to the interval of a Fifth, 
or thereabouts. That is, it does not vary beyond three tones and a half, (these 
being the constituents of a Fifth) either in an upward or downward direction. It 
is not to be understood, that all the words of discourse are to be pronounced 
with the same accent (inflection or concrete) ; for one is to have an acute, (rising) 
another, a grave (falling) accent, and another, to have both ; (that is, the acute f 
Joined in continuation with the grave, on the same syllable) which is called the 
Circumflex. Again, some words have the acute and the grave separately heard 
on different syllables. In dissyllables, there is no middle place for applying an 
acute or grave. (A truism ; for where there is no middle syllable there can be no 
middle accent). In polysyllables of every kind, one of the syllables has the 
acute accent and the rest the grave.' 'The tune (say intonation) of instruments 
and of song, is by no means limited as in speech, to this interval of the Fifth ; 
but runs through the octave, fifth, fourth, second, semitone, and according to 
some, the quarter tone.' 

Here is all that Dionysius says, on what we have been taught to think the pro- 
found knowledge and skill of the Greeks, in the philosophy and practice of this 
singing, or as we must now call it intonation, in speech. Nor is this to be taken 
as a mere summary of a fuller detail of knowledge; since the description con- 
tains more particulars than all the still-remaining rhetorical and musical 
writings of the ancients. But we findj this only attempt to describe in detail, 
the melody of Grecian discourse, refers especially to that equally obscure, and 
disputed question-; the Accentual stress on syllables; which certainly would not 
have been the case, could any of the numerous authors on this subject have had 
the least idea of a natural and comprehensive system of intonation. Indeed 
the account of the ' tune' of speech, by Dionysius, and by all the writers on rhe- 
toric and music, seems to have been given only under some vague, and as we 
must now consider it, absurd notion of the acute, grave, and circumflex accent 



178 THE PITCH 

If then we have come to a describable perception of the con- 
stituents of the voice, let us endeavor to apply it. 

There is in our first section, a compendious view of the 
various forms of Pitch 3 from the minute interval of the tremu- 
lous scale, to the octave, and beyond it, both in their upward 
and downward direction, together with their union into various 
forms of the wave. The greater part of these forms, as with those 
of Quality, Time, and Force, are employed in the expression of 
passion : and only a few for denoting simple thought. It is 
my desigu to show how these different forms of pitch, are 
applied for declaring these several conditions and purposes of 
the mind. 

Man, notwithstanding the vain-glorious boast of his moral 
destiny, his religion, and his progressive civilization 5 is now as 
he has been, so generally, an Animal of fierce desires or pas- 
sions, and so rarely a being of observation and reflection 3 that 
we must not be surprised to find the greater number of his 
vocal signs, expressive of this ardent and predominating com- 
plexion of his character. Thus of all the upward and down- 
ward intervals of the scale 3 and all the waves in their direct 
and inverted, equal and unequal, single and double forms, there 
is but one which is not so employed. The simple rise and fall 
of the second, with its wave, when used for narrative, or for 
the plain statement of an unexcited thought 3 is the only into- 
nated voice of man that does not spring from a passionative, or 
in some degree, an earnest condition of his mind. If we listen 
to his ignorance, his fears, superstition, selfishness, arrogance, 

or inflection, being invariably applied to certain syllables j both, when pro- 
nounced alone, and in the current of discourse. We must therefore conclude 3 
from this belief of the Greeks, that all their syllabic accents were unchangea- 
ble j it could have never entered their minds, to conceive a measurable and 
varied melody on successive syllables in speech. It would be wrong, to say 3 
Dionysius and his Grecians did not know their own opinions about the voice ; 
but I must think, a strict observer in this case will say, they knew almost 
nothing of its reality. When a false idea is measured by itself, as happens in 
systems raised upon authority or fancy, all that is defective, distorted, or super- 
fluous, comes out in perfect accord with its own rule, and thus blinds us to the 
error. It is a comparison with the rule of observation, which is found only in 
nature, that shows its deformity. 



OF THE VOICE. 179 

and injustice, we hear them under the forms of vivid vocal 
expression. Thus we have the rising intervals of the third, 
fifth, and octave, for interrogatives, not of kindness, but of the 
fierce and persecuting Catechists of our life and faith ; the 
downward third, fifth, and octave, for dogmatic, or tyrannical 
command; waves for the wonder of ignorance, the snarling of 
ill-humor, and the curling voice of contempt ; the piercing 
hight of pitch, for the scream of terror, the brawls of intem- 
perance, and the shouts of the fanatic around the stake of the 
martyr ; the semitone, for the peevish whine of discontent, and 
for the puling cant of the hypocrite and knave, who thus strive 
in vain to conceal their crafty designs. Then listen to him on 
those rare occasions, when he forgets himself and his passions, 
and has to utter a useful thought, or plainly to narrate 3 and 
you will hear the second, the unobtrusive interval of the scale, 
in the admirable adaptation of nature, made the simple sign of 
the dispassionate perception of her wisdom and truth. In 
short, man as an Individual, is in his forms of intonation, only 
the type of an eternal National Character ; always prone to be 
vividly expressive of its vain-glory, and its emulative contempt 
of others ; emphatic in self-will ; vociferous in cupidity ; and 
unjustly aggressive in its high-toned assumptions and impera- 
tive threats ; with the piercing and prevailing cry of Avar, from 
within and from without, and only occasionally resting in the 
quiet intonation of moral and intellectual peace, with the Tem- 
ple of the passionative vocal Janus shut. 

In describing the radical and vanish, the simple interval of 
the inexpressive second was represented as an individual func- 
tion, under its form of the equable concrete, on a single tonic 
element. We will consider in the next section, its application 
to successive syllables and words, in sentences of continuous 
speech. This continuous style or drift of speech, thus formed 
by the simple thoughtive second, cannot from the character of 
that second, have what we call expression. It may therefore 
seem that continuous speech in the second, is designed to be a 
plain and colorless ground, for the contrasted display of the 
vivid voice of wider or passionative intervals, applied to occa- 



180 THE PITCH OF THE VOICE. 

sional syllables in its course. And here the reader may per- 
ceive one reason for our proposed distinction between the non- 
expressive, so to call it, and the expressive character of the 
constituents of speech. 

It was formerly stated that the notes of the musical scale, 
under a certain order of succession, constitute the melody of 
song ; and we now have to show in what manner a succession 
of concrete and discrete intervals in the speaking scale consti- 
tutes, under some peculiarity of structure, the Melody of 
Speech. 

Since I am about to represent that continuous melody of a 
second, or tone, as the ground upon which other intervals, and 
other constituents of speech are to be distributed, I must beg 
the student to give his deliberate attention to the subject. 

The succession of syllables in plain narrative or descriptive 
style, being through the intervals of a concrete and discrete 
tone, the melody is specified as Diatonic. 






THE DIATONIC MELODY OF SPEECH. 



181 



SECTION VIII. 

Of the Diatonic Melody of Speech ; together ivith an inquiry, 

how far the Musical terms, Key and Modulation, 

are applicable to it. 

"When the radical and vanishing movement was described, it 
was regarded individually or as applied to a single syllable. 
But as speech consists for the most part of a series of syllables, 
on each of which some form of the concrete instinctively occurs, 
it is necessary to consider the use and relationships of the radical 
and vanish, in its repeated application to the successive syllables 
of discourse. 

In plain Narrative or Description, or as we called it, thought- 
ive discourse, the concrete of each syllable moves through the 
interval of a tone : and the successive concretes have a differ- 
ence in the place of their pitch, relatively to each other. The 
application of these concretes to syllables, and the manner of 
varying the succession of the places of their pitch, are exempli- 
fied on the following sentence. 



He 


reads 


in 


na 


— ture's 


in fi nite 


d 


J 


eT 


JT 


<f 


JT <J «f 


W W X9 Kf ^m 



book 


of 


se ere cy. 


4 


-r 


-r 


' 






^^ 



If we suppose these lines and the included spaces to denote, 
each in proximate order, the difference of a tone, the succession 
of the several radicals with their issuing vanish, will Bhou the 
places of the syllables of the superscribed sentence, in easy and 



182 THE DIATONIC 

unimpassioned utterance. The perception of the effect of the 
concretes, and of their successions here exemplified, is called 
the Melody of Speech. 

A strict definition of the term, melody of speech, embraces 
the modes of pitch, force, and time, together with the pause ; 
and regards likewise, intervals of the scale wider than that 
above exemplified, as well as intervals with a downward move- 
ment ; for all these are employed in the course of melody : yet 
as each of them consistently with their place and purpose, will 
be separately described hereafter, the present section is limited 
to the subject of pitch, when the progression is made exclusively 
through the rising concrete, and the rising and falling discrete 
interval of a tone; constituting, as regards Pitch alone, the 
proper Diatonic Melody. 

The difference of pitch in this style of speech is perceived 
only by close observation, and by well-directed experiment. 
The pupil being able to intonate the scale, let him practice the 
interval of a second on syllables, instead of on the simple tonic 
element ; using a different syllable for each degree. Thus pre- 
pared, let him read the line of the preceding diagram, and try 
to recognize its intonation by slowly pronouncing, or rather 
hacking-out only the tonic element of each sellable ; and giving 
those elements so short and abrupt a sound, that the reading 
being thus inarticulate may resemble the successions of a short 
cough. This method will make the variations of pitch more 
distinguishable, than when the other elements of the syllable 
are uttered along with the tonic. 

If this contrived utterance should not afford a clear percep- 
tion, that the radical of a given syllable rises or falls a tone, 
from the place of the preceding one, let the pupil measure the 
questionable relation of the two sounds, by the rule of the scale, 
in the following manner. While he pronounces the two sylla- 
bles as if he were reading, let him notice their pitch, as degrees 
of the scale. When the second is above the first, those two 
syllabic sounds will form the first two degrees of the rising scale ; 
and continuing to rise by an alternate use of these syllables, he 
will complete that scale. When the second syllable is below 






MELODY OF SPEECH. 183 

the first, he will, on adding one or more syllables below the 
second, recognize the peculiar effect heard at the close of the 
scale, and on a fall of the voice at a period of discourse ; for 
this last effect is produced only by a downward movement. In 
the use of the means here proposed, the ear must with divided 
attention, be directed, apparently at the same time to the pro- 
gress of the equable concrete in the spoken melody, and to the 
succession of notes in the musical scale. 

To explain the system of melody, we must consider the suc- 
cession of concretes both in the course of a sentence, and at its 
close. These divisions may be respectively termed, the Current 
melody, and the melody of the Cadence. 

The current melody, or the succession of rise and fall, em- 
ployed on all the syllables of a sentence, except the last three, 
may be thus described. 

In simple thoughtive or narrative language, having no ex- 
pression, every syllable consists of the rising equable-concrete 
of a tone. The succession of these concretes has a variation of 
pitch, in which the radicals of any two never differ from each 
other more than the interval of a tone. 

To distinguish these two forms of melodial progression by 
short and referable terms, let us call the concrete rise of each 
syllable j the Concrete Pitch of melody ; and the place assumed 
by the radical of each concrete, above or below that of the pre- 
ceding > } the Radical Pitch. Thus in the foregoing notation, 
every one of the syllables has the concrete pitch of a tone, 
passing from line to space, or from space to line. The two, 
respectively composing the words nature, and book of, differ a 
discrete tone from each other in their radical pitch ; while the 
radical pitch of the three syllables in infinite is the same. 

Ii will l.e shown, in its proper place, that the melody em- 
ployed ;it some of the pauses in discourse requires a certain 
succession of radical pitch, for the just representation of the 
sense, and of the different degrees of connection between clauses. 
Bui the parts contained within the divisions made by these 
pauses, have in general, no fixed arrangement: for the effect 
Will he both proper and agreeable, if the melody of these parts 



184 



THE DIATONIC 



is made by avoiding a continuation of the same radical pitch, 
or of an alternate rising and falling, or any other progression 
of too remarkable a regularity. I offer three different notations 
of the same sentence ; where the succession of radical pitch in 
each reading is varied ; the above caution observe,d ; and where 
the melody has a simple construction. 



He ne ver 



drinks, 



but 



Ti- 



-mon's sil- 



treads 




He ne ver drinks, but Ti mon's sil ver 



Hff- — 



^ f ~SL ^ L 



treads up on his lip. 



31 



He ne ver drinks, but Ti — mon's sil ver 






-^p- $§- W— 



treads up on his lip. 



-® — 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 



185 



Other arrangements of a proper and agreeable melody might 
be made for this sentence, on the principles of the varied suc- 
cession of radical pitch'here exemplified. But, however varied 
the succession, its forms are all reducible to a limited number 
of aggregates of the radical and vanish. These may be called 
the Phrases of Melody. These phrases are shown in the nota- 
tion of the following lines ; where the current is constructed in 
a manner not unsuitable to the simple narrative of the couplet ; 
though here, as in some other instances of this essay, the 
melody is given with a view to illustrate description, rather 
than to furnish examples of appropriate elocution. 



That quar — ter 


most the 


ekil — ful Greeks 


an noy, 


d J U 




dT • 


«f ° 


W W w 









Monotone. Falling Ditone. Rising Tritone. Rising Ditone. 
Where yon wild fig trees join the walls of Troy. 




Falling Tritone. 



Alternation. 



Triad of the Cadence. 



"When two or more syllables as in the above example, occur 
successively on the same place of radical pitch, it may be called 
the phrase of the Monotone. 

When the radical pitch of a syllable is a tone above that of a 
preceding syllable, the phrase may be termed the Rising Ditone. 

"When the radical pitch of a syllable is a tone bcloio that of a 
preceding syllable, the Falling Ditone. 

When the radicals of three syllables successively ascend a 
tone, the Rising Tritone. 

When the radicals of three syllables successively descend a 
tone, the Falling Tritone. 

A train of three or more syllables, alternately a tone above 
and below each other, may be called an Alternation or the 
13 



186 THE DIATONIC 

Alternate phrase. This may seem an unnecessary distinction ; 
as the alternate phrase is no more than a succession of the rising 
and the falling ditone. But as this succession does often occur 
in speech, the term Alternation is here assigned, as a brief 
term for this form of melodial progression. 

When three syllables successively descend in their radical 
pitch, at the close of a sentence, the phrase may be called the 
Cadence, or Triad of the Cadence. This is indeed, a falling 
tritone, but since the vanish of the lowest radical in the tritone 
of the cadence always descends, as will be shown presently, I 
have thought proper to contradistinguish and to specify it, as 
the Triad. 

It is to be remarked, that the names, and construction of 
the phrases of melody are the same, when the syllabic vanish 
has the downward course ; the movements of the radical pitch, 
especially constituting the phrases, not being affected by the 
direction of the concrete pitch. 

I have not been able to resolve the melody of plain narrative, 
or thoughtive discourse, into more than these seven phrases. 
It would seem to be part of the ordination of the diatonic 
melody, that there should not be a successive rise, or a fall of 
radical pitch to any great extent, by proximate degrees. It is 
here limited to the tritone, in both directions, because it appears 
to me that a further progression, though it may be occasionally 
used, is not agreeable. Whether the propriety of excluding 
successively rising and falling phrases of more than three con- 
stituents from diatonic or thoughtive speech, might be grounded 
on the perception 3 that the effect of such phrases somewhat 
resembles the effect of song, particularly in ascending the scale, 
whereby the semitone is traversed 3 I leave to be determined by 
others ; hoping, in the social as well as intellectual unity of 
science, that until this point is ascertained, there will be no 
party divisions or useless contention about it. 

The three examples given in a preceding page, of the varied 
current melody of the same sentence 5 and the statement that 
even in that short sentence, the phrases might be further agree- 
ably diversified, enable us to understand 3 how a speaker, under 






MELODY OF SPEECH. 187 

the direction of the science of melody, and with the habit of 
applying it, may readily avoid a monotonous continuation of 
the same radical pitch, and of formal returns of similar pro- 
gressions. For notwithstanding the pitch is necessarily limited 
to the change afforded by the rise and the fall of a single tone, 
yet the different phrases of melody, and their practicable inter- 
changes, furnish varied sequences of dissimilar passages, quite 
sufficient to prevent a recognition of identity in the succession. 
The ear of a skilful speaker, under the direction of science, will 
be always on the watch, against the too frequent repetition of 
the same phrases : and the variety in their several forms, affords 
an easy exemption from this cause of monotony. The principles 
that govern the successions of pitch in the melody of speech, 
are similar to those for the arrangement of varied accent and 
quantity, in the rythmus of well adjusted prose. Excellence 
in each is the work of an educated, and discerning ear ; and its 
habitual and almost involuntary judgment, is not less effective 
in one instance j by securing the beauties of a varied intonation, 
than in the other 3 by rejecting the prosodial measures of 
acknowledged verse. 

If the foregoing description of the successions of pitcli in 
plain narrative is correct, we may, upon strict etymology, call 
mi of those successions the Diatonic Melody of speech. 
For in the first place, the vanish of each separate concrete rises 
through the space of a tone ; and in the second, the changes of 
radical pitch are made through the same interval. We learn 
thru, that the melody is made partly in the concrete, and 
partly in the discrete scale. The radical and vanish of each 
syllable is strictly concrete ; the transition from one syllable to 
another is strictly discrete. The reader may however, in the 
tot diagram, merely notice, for it is a matter of no great 
practical importance; that transitions of the different phrases, 
give ;i different extent to the distances between anyone radical, 
and the close of" the preceding vanish. Tims the constitm 
Che rising ditone and tritone have apparently no discrete inter- 
val between them : for where the vanish closes, the succeeding 
radical begins. The monotone has a discrete Becohd. The 



188 THE DIATONIC 

falling ditone and tritone, when the vanish rises, have two dis- 
crete tones, or the interval of a third. But these and similar 
differences produce, if we except the instance of the two discrete 
tones, no perceptible effect in the melody ; since in the case of 
the rising ditone, where the voices of two syllables would seem 
to join 5 the full abruptness of the radical, makes a plain dis- 
tinction between itself and the feebleness of the preceding 
vanish. 

The uses of the concrete and the radical pitch above described, 
point out two essential distinctions between the melody of speech 
and that of song. And first : song generally employs the pro- 
tracted radical or protracted vanish, on all its extended sylla- 
bles ; whereas speech always employs the simple concrete, or 
the wave. Second : in the diatonic melody of speech, the radi- 
cal pitch proceeds by proximate degrees, or changes of a single 
tone. The melody of song proceeds variously both by proxi- 
mate degrees, and by skips of wider intervals of the scale. 

In treating hereafter, on emphasis, and on interrogative 
sentences, the occasions and manner of using wider radical 
changes in speech, will be shown. The melody of simple narra- 
tive or inexpressive speech, now before us, always moves by 
proximate degrees. 

Having thus given the name of Diatonic Melody to the cur- 
rent intonation of the dispassionate or thoughtive state of mind, 
and having learned that the intonation should consist of a cer- 
tain inexpressive or thoughtive vocal signj we may perceive 
the propriety of applying the name of that melody, both to the 
state and the sign. In addition then to the nomenclature in 
the sixth section, I shall employ the term, diatonic, as synony- 
mous with that of thoughtive 3 for the individual state of mind, 
and the individual vocal sign ; and for the style or drift of the 
same state, and sign. 

We proceed to analyze the intonation applied to the three 
final syllables of a sentence ; and which, from its position and 
peculiar purpose, I have contradistinguished as the Melody of 
the Cadence. 

When the eight notes of the musical diatonic scale are 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 189 

uttered, both ascending and descending, by a repetition of the 
word cordova, the appropriation of syllables will be thus 3 
cor-do-va cor-do-va cor-do ; and descending -» cor-do cor-do-va 
cor-do-va. By thus sol-faing if I may so speak, on these sylla- 
bles, the last repetition of the word in the descent, is allotted 
to the three lower notes of the scale ; the final syllable making 
a full close on its key-note. In this experiment, the intonation 
is supposed to be made by the protracted note of song ; as it 
would certainly be so made, by a person familiar with the scale. 
Yet while descending, if these last three notes of song be 
changed to equable concretes of speech, the effect on the ear 
will be identical with that of the same word, properly uttered 
at a full period of discourse. From this and other trials, it 
may be learned, that the cadence in speech, is always made 
with three successively downward radicals, from the line of the 
current melody ; or by other downward movements of the like 
extent. 

But the most remarkable effect of the cadence lies in another 
point. Nearly all the radical sounds of the current melody are 
represented in the several diagrams, as terminating in a rising 
vanish ; yet we shall learn hereafter, that the purposes of vari- 
ety often require the use of a downward concrete. Another 
purpose of this downward movement is, to bring the current to 
a close ; and with this intention, the last constituent or lowest 
concrete of the cadence is always made by the downward vanish 
of a tone. This descent of the concrete, here so easily distin- 
guishable from its rise, assists in producing the repose at the 
end of a sentence; and constitutes, in connection with the 
series of three descending radicals, the essential characteristic 
of the cadence. 

It was stated above, that each syllable of the current melody 
lias a radical and vanishing tone appropriated to it. The con- 
cretes of the cadence are not always so assigned. Let us for 
the sake of reference, designate the constituent concretes of the 
eadence, by their numeral positions. 

In the First form of the cadence, the first, second, and 
third constituent has each a corresponding syllable, with a 



190 THE DIATONIC 

downward vanish on the last. Prom the rising vanish on two 
of its constituents, let us call it, the Rising Triad. 

Sweet is the breath. of morn. 



The Second form has a similar appropriation of concretes to 
syllables ; with a downward vanish on each constituent. Let 
this be called, the Falling Triad ; or, as it denotes the most 
complete close, the Full Cadence. The first and second forms 
are thus Tripartite. 

The air was fanned by un num — ber'd plumes. 



-tf— ^L-t C «^~ 



In the Third, the first and second concretes 3 or a concrete 
that occupies the conjoined intervals of the first and second 3 is 
allotted to a single syllable. From the first and second tones 
being here set to one syllable, call this the First Duad. 

With tur — ret crest and sleek en — -am el'd neck. 



jf—4 f 4^4 4 j|- 



In the Fourth, the second and third coalesce on one syllable. 
From the second and third tones being set to one syllable, call 
this the Second Duad. 

The mean ing, not the name, I call. 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 191 

In the Fifth, the three constituents are appropriated to one 
long syllable. As this is the least impressive form of the close, 
call it the Feeble Cadence. 



No, 


by 


the 


rood 


not 


SO. 


-V 


4 


rf 


tf 


0- 


« 


W 


w 




V 



In the Sixth form, "which should properly he called a False 
Cadence, the second constituent is omitted, as in the following 
notation. 



Of 


■wiles 


more 


in— 


— ex — 


—pert 


I 


boast 


not. 


4 




4 


4 


4 


4 


4 


¥ 






«r 


w 












^ 



This takes place, when the ultimate and penult syllables of a 
sentence are each so short, that giving to either, the length of 
two conjoined concretes, would deform pronunciation. It is to 
be avoided, by making the two short syllables, the second and 
third of a tripartite form. 

In this last example, the cadence should be properly a suc- 
cessive descent of three tones, on the words, I boast not. 
Should a reader by unskilful management, neglect to set the 
syllable boast, with the radical pitch of a tone below i", he will 
be unable to complete the cadence, by a downward prolongation 
of the short syllable not, through the interval of two tones, as 
shown in the fourth form of the cadence. But a full close can- 
not be made without the third constituent^ or an extension of 
the second, by a downward vanish through its place ; and as 
the syllable not, on account of its short time, is incapable of 
this last condition, the second constituent must be omitted, and 
a defective or false cadence made by a skip to the last place of 
the triad. 

From this account of the cadence, we have learned that its 
construction involves a consideration of the time of syllables. 
The tripartite form may bo used under any condition of quan- 



192 THE DIATONIC 

tity ; but if the three, and even the two final syllables should 
be short, and not admit of prolongation, it is the only one 
available. When the penult alone is long, the first duad may 
be used ; while the second duad and the feeble each require a 
long quantity in the last syllable. 

Of the six forms of the cadence, all except the last are, 
according to their appropriate use, satisfactory and agreeable 
closes ; but the first and second, which proceed by an equal 
number of concretes and syllables, are of the easiest execution. 
The third, fourth, and fifth, each conjoining the spaces of two 
and three concretes respectively on a single syllable, require 
unusual facility in the management of Quantity. Skill in com- 
manding the time of utterance will enable an accomplished 
reader to perform with equal ease and elegance, these three 
varieties of cadence, and to give a faultless close, however 
unexpectedly he may meet with a period in discourse ; while 
the ordinary reader frequently fails in the melody of his 
cadence, from being limited to the use of the tripartite. For 
should his current melody be so continued, that a monotone or 
rising ditone reaches to the penult syllable, the cadence will 
necessarily be awkward or falser either from the last syllable 
being short, or from his being unable to manage his time and 
intonation on a single long one. The sixth, or last described 
form of the cadence, occurs occasionally with the mass of 
speakers ; but it is strictly forbidden by the rule of a good 
composition in melody. 

The fifth form of the cadence, which is made restrictively 
upon the last syllable, is peculiar. It appears that the voice 
does pass downward through the same extent of pitch, as when 
the cadence is made in the tripartite form ; but by this wider 
descent of the first constituent, the radicals of the second and 
third constituents are lost. Now it is the fulness of the radical 
that draws the attention of the ear to the discrete changes of 
pitch, and thus conspicuously marks the descent of the triad at 
the close. The omission therefore of the radicals of the second 
and third concretes, lessens the impressiveness of this form, 
and justifies its term, Feeble Cadence. When the reader can 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 193 

follow the notation, he will perceive a difference between the 
effect of the full and the feeble close ; and will admit, that the 
full or falling triad with its downward vanishes, produces a 
more satisfactory feeling of repose. 

In the diagrams of the cadence, it appears, by measuring 
from the radical of the first constituent, to the extreme of the 
downward vanish of the last, that all the forms except the 
fifth, embrace the interval of a fourth. And though I have 
marked this last form, nominally as a third, yet the feeble 
cadence may be made by an extension of the concrete, down- 
ward to a fourth or fifth. Nor do I deny; the downward con- 
crete of all the constituents, may not on occasion, reach beyond 
the tone here assigned to it. I have assumed the interval of 
the third as the characteristic of the feeble cadence, because it 
is the smallest downward interval that has, in its place, the 
effect of a close ; and the effect, or if I may so call it, the 
punctuative intonation of this Feeble cadence is such, that the 
ear allows a speaker either to pause after it, or to proceed in 
his discourse. 

A proper construction of the cadence is essential to the just 
melody of speech ; for having the peculiar character of a close, 
and occurring more rarely than the other phrases, it does more 
emphatically affect the ear ; while its position at the pause, 
subjects it to discriminative attention. It must be well known to 
those who have witnessed the efforts of children, that the proper 
management of a close of the voice in reading is acquired with 
great difficulty, and after a length of time. I have heard offen- 
sive deviations from the true rule of the cadence, by actors 
of long practice and considerable skill; who would have guarded 
their utterance against the alleged fault, if their powers instead 
of being exercised only in the benumming school of imitation, 
had been directed by that freedom and energy which should 
govern the effective powers of speech. 

In the first section of this essay, the term Key was defined, 
to signify a certain arrangement of the constituents of the 
musical scale ; and we now proceed to inquire with what pro- 



194 THE DIATONIC 

priety the term is applied to the melodial ranges of the speak- 
ing voice. 

As a generic term in music, Key designates the proper suc- 
cession of tones and semitones in the diatonic scale. It includes 
several species of a similar order of successions, carried on 
from each of the several places of the scale, as the beginning 
of those similar orders. It was shown 3 there are twelve keys, 
founded on the semitonic divisions ; within each of which, an 
air or melody may be restrictively performed ; with a regulated 
method, however, of conducting that melody, from one to 
another, successively through the whole twelve, by what is 
called Modulation. An agreeable melody may likewise be 
made upon a progression of the scale 3 with the semitones dif- 
ferently placed, from those of the progression, described in the 
first section. Thus we have two different Modes of the diatonic 
scale. In one a semitone lies between the third and fourth 
notes, and between the seventh and octave, as formerly taught ; 
constituting the kind of succession called the Major scale, or 
Mode. In the other, a semitone lies between the second and 
third notes, and the fifth and sixth in descending the scale 3 
and between the second and third, and the seventh and eighth 
in ascending ; forming the succession of the Minor Mode. Now, 
as there are twelve points of the scale, from each of which a 
diatonic series may be arranged, so there may be twenty-four 
keys ; twelve constructed in the Major mode, and twelve in the 
Minor. A melody in music formed on the series of the latter 
mode, has a plaintive expression, from the peculiar position of 
the semitones. The plaintiveness of speech, we shall learn here- 
after, is produced by an entirely different method of intonation. 

The melody of Music, both in the major and in the minor 
scale, is variously made by progressions of skips, and of con- 
joint degrees, through a series of five tones and two semitones, 
in a given key ; and the song or movement so constructed is 
terminated with entire satisfaction to the ear, when brought to 
a close on the first point of the series, called the key note. 

The melody of Narrative or plain unimpassioned Speech 
proceeds by conjoint degrees only ; and its satisfactory close 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 195 

at a period of discourse is effected by a descent of its radical 
pitch through three conjoint degrees, with a downward concrete 
from the last. The scale of the speaking voice has no fixed 
place for semitones ; nor is it limited like that of music, to a 
peculiar arrangement of seven constituent intervals. "When a 
person can speak distinctly through a compass of ten diatonic 
degrees j included between the lowest pitch of articulate utter- 
ance and the highest point of the natural voice j his melody 
may by the use of a succession of proper conjoint phrases, be 
carried in the following manner, through any wandering course 
of ascent and descent, within these boundaries. Let him take 
his first syllable on the first place of this supposed range. A 
ditone will raise the melody to the second, and an additional 
concrete on that second place, will make the phrase of the 
monotone. From this, a ditone will lead him upward to the 
third place ; and in like manner ascending, the melody may be 
carried to the tenth. Now from this utmost elevation, a falling 
ditone will bring him to the ninth ; a monotone on this will 
prepare the voice for another ditone descent to the eighth. 
Having by a similar progress reached the third place, the triad 
of the cadence, with the downward concrete of its final con- 
stituent, will close the melody on the first. 

In the foregoing description, the melody is conducted for- 
mally up and down, to show the manner of changing the pitch, 
by avoiding more than two directly successive rising or falling 
radicals. But the rising tritone may also be used in ascending ; 
while the progress may be varied by a longer monotone, and 
by deferring the rise, or the fall, with the use of respectively 
an occasional phrase, of contrary movement. It is by avoiding 
an ascent and descent of more than three concretes in succes- 
sion, that the desirable changes through acuteness and gravity 
in speech, may be effected in an easy and agreeable manner : 
for the beauty of melody consists, both in skilfully varying the 
order of phrases, as they move onwardsj and in correctly man- 
aging the rise and fall through the whole compass of pitch. 
The following notation shows the progress of the voice within 
a compass of nine diatonic degrees; the rule of a gradual rise 



196 THE DIATONIC 

and fall being observed, and the melody being therein agreea- 
bly diversified. 



If 


thou 


dost 


slan 


der 


her 


and 


tor — ture me, 




e£ 






<sT 




fljT 


_«T 


¥ 


*£ ~ Cf 


eT 


tf 


(p 


& 











Ne — ver 


pray 


more: 


a — ban-don 


all 


re morse ; 


r~ ..... _ ... 


«r v 




A 


<d 


^T 


* ff 




V 


<T*T* 









On 


hor ror's 


head 


hor rors 


ac cu — mu — late ; 




-^ 


«T ef 


«f 


W ff 


* # ^ 















Do deeds to make Hea-ven weep, all earth a mazed: 



^— 4 tf-*-^—W-W-- 



For no-thing canst 


thou 


to dam— 


»na — tion 


add, 


ff 


" ^ ^ ff 


rT 


¥ *f 


of «f 




w 





Great er than that. 



- * wz 



The above notation is designed to exemplify exclusively, the 
means of passing through the compass of Speech ; for though 
the style is highly passionative, it may, like the narrative, 
still move upward and downward by proximate degrees. If 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 197 

it were here the place, to represent the proper intonation 
of this forcible passage, other forms of both the radical 
and concrete pitch, and of other modes of the voice, would 
be used and explained. This subject will be considered here- 
after. At the two colon pauses, which in correct reading will 
not bear a full close, I have set the less conspicuous interrup- 
tion of the feeble cadence. 

Although the foregoing account of the melody of music and 
of speech represents the forms of the radical and vanish, and 
their melodial progressions, so widely different from each other ; 
yet, as the several keys in music do designate different degrees 
of pitch, and as the effect of the key-note does resemble that of 
the cadence in speech, there would seem to be some similarity 
between them. For since a descent in speech, of three degrees 
of radical pitch with a downward vanish from the last, always 
produces a cadence, and affects the ear like the consummation 
of a key-note in musics it follows, that in a voice with a com- 
pass of ten diatonic degrees, every degree, except the upper 
two, may be the place of what we will here, in supposing the 
case, call a key-note of speech ; and therefore, by the condi- 
tions of a key-note in music, that this voice might be said to 
have eight keys. But there would be an unavoidable difficulty 
in this specification of the keys of spoken melody. When a 
musical melody is said to be in a particular key, the term 
designates exactly the position of its key-note. The melody of 
speech cannot properly be referred to a particular key, nor has 
it a fixed place for the key-note ; since it may be terminated 
by a triad of the cadence, at any degree of the scale. The 
constituents of the monotone are the only concretes of a melody, 
to which a semblance of the function of key could be assigned, 
for they would each have the same position in the cadencial 
close. When a cadence is made on any of the other phrases, 
the triad which descends to a close from the place of one of 
its constituents, must differ from the triad descending from 
another. 

Such being the fruitless attempt to designate the key of a 
single phrase > how much more indefinitely must a particular 



198 THE DIATONIC 

key be affirmed of a current melody composed of a continually 
varying succession of phrases. The true place of key can be 
affirmed only of the first constituent of the cadence itself, 
because the succession of its last two, and the place of its closing 
concrete, with regard to the first, are unalterably fixed. Yet 
even in this case, the technical and true meaning of the term 
key is in no way applicable. Looking on the first constituent 
of the triad, as determining the idea of key, when applied to 
speech j a particular key may be appropriated to each degree 
of the whole compass, except the lower two ; and consequently 
the key, if it can be so called, of a current melody must per- 
petually change. 

The peculiar series of tone and semitone, in the scales of 
music ; the necessity for rules of modulation, to govern the 
change from one series to another ; together with the purposes 
of Concerting, and of Harmonic composition, led to the definite 
nomenclature and arrangement of musical keys. A melodial 
progression exclusively by whole tones, in the speaking scale 3 
and the unaccompanied, or strictly solo-vocal office of speech, 
do not require the use of Key : the designations therefore of 
its range and form of melody, perhaps call for no nearer pre- 
cision than that of a classification into the upper, middle, and 
lower pitch of the voice. There is then no Key in Speech. 

From this view of the speaking voice it may be understood, 
why in the notation of its melody I have used only the staff of 
the musical tablature, without reference to its clefs or its signa- 
tures. Clefs are used in music for the purposes of Concerting -j 
by determining with precision the proper places of pitch, for 
several voices or instruments, moving in accompaniment. They 
are therefore useless to the singleness of speech. Nor does the 
melody of Narrative require the System of Key, or the Signa- 
ture of Flats and Sharps, which are necessary in the musical 
scale, from the position of its semitones. The naked lines and 
spaces of the Staff, denoting the proximate succession of a tone, 
afford the proper and sufficient means for illustrating the into- 
nation of narrative or diatonic speech. 

The term Modulation is used in music, to signify the transi- 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 199 

tions of melody, and of harmonic composition, from one key to 
another. A consideration of the propriety of using this term 
to signify similar changes in the melody of speech, is involved 
in the question, of the propriety of applying the musical term 
key to the variations of pitch in the speaking voice : and we 
have seen the almost universal difference between the regular 
system of keys in music, and the melodial method of speech. 
There is then, no Modulation in the speaking voice. 

The preceding history of the musical, and of the speaking 
scale, is intended to show the relationships between them : but 
it appears from comparison 3 there is no systematic analogy to 
justify the transfer of the term key 3 and that of modulation, 
which embraces only the practical use of key 3 from music to 
speech. The transfer was, however, long ago made, and the 
terms are still continued, under a total ignorance of the method 
of intonation in the speaking voice. When the truth of the 
analysis set forth in this section shall be admitted, it will be 
obligatory on all those who derive pleasure or benefit from 
accuracy of knowledge, to distinguish by appropriate names, 
those phenomena which negligence may have suffered to pass 
as identical. If the musical terms, key and modulation, had 
not received an unmeaning admission into the nomenclature of 
the speaking voice, the description of its melody would not, in 
these last pages, have been complicated with a record of the 
waste work of investigation, which the inquirer is ready to 
expunge and forget, when he has discovered and declared the 
simple truth. And had the hitherto untried subject of melody 
been relieved from the blinding consequences of that erroneous 
nomenclature, the unargued and unbiased history of its changes 
would have been briefly this. The diatonic melody of the spe;i Ic- 
ing voice, may be led ascending and descending, through its 
whole compass, by a succession, exclusively of whole tones ; 
and may from any point except the lowest two, be brought to 
a satisfactory close, by the descent of three radicals through 
conjoint degrees, with a downward concrete on the last. 

If I do not here follow the preferred brevity, nor omit the 
details which show the doctrine of key and modulation to be 



200 THE DIATONIC MELODY OF SPEECH. 

inapplicable to speech; it is that I anticipated the inquiries 3 
a habit of erroneous nomenclature would suggest ; and that I 
chose perhaps advantageously, to introduce into the recorded 
investigation, some further or varied remarks on the melody of 
speech. 

In reviewing the subject just closed, I fear the described phe- 
nomena of the voice may not be immediately recognized, nor 
the system of their combination at once definitely comprehended. 
The difficulties in this case may proceed, not only from the 
common mental slowness and indocility to newly offered subjects 
of knowledge, but likewise from the connected system of such 
subjects, being dimly arrayed before the inquiry which was able 
to discover their insulated truths. The art of observation is a 
matter of apprenticeship and practice ; and it is the time, no 
less than the manner of the work, that contributes to the endur- 
ing excellence of a master. Thoughts not impressed by the 
deep sealing of time, nor familiarized by the close acquaintance 
of habit, are feeble or deluding agents in the arduous task of 
comparison and arrangement ; for it will be found that the 
author who first institutes, or who comprehensively renovates a 
science, rarely adds the clearest economy of system to his work. 
To look widely, yet closely, is the paradox of the powers of 
Heaven ; and he who spans the broad compass of a science, 
while he touches its divisions and points, is partially raised 
above the bounded prospects and efforts of humanity, by this 
humble tendency towards omniscience. To him is due that 
surpassing compliment greatly imagined by the contemplative 
Greek ; who knowing upon what combined and exalted faculties 
to place the crown of intellectual glory, declared, that he who 
can Arrange and Define well, might be fit company for the Gods. 



QUALITY OF VOICE. 201 

SECTION IX. 

Of the Quality or Kind of Voice. 

Quality or Kind is one of the five Modes of speech. Its 
principal forms are the Whispering, the Natural, the Falsette, 
and the Orotund Voices, together with those embraced by the 
common nomenclature of harsh, hoarse, rough, smooth, full, 
thin, meager, and tunable. Quality is as it were, the material 
of speech ; and many of its forms are employed for the purpose 
of expression. 

Instead of the term, musical, commonly employed under this 
head, I use Tunable, to signify, as formerly stated, the agree- 
able quality of sound either in the voice, or on instruments. 
It means quality alone, and does not, as we employ it, regard 
the relationship of pitch or tune. The tunable is only the 
smooth and the clear in sound, distinguished from the roughness 
and confusion of noise. 

There are certain states of mind instinctively associated with 
appropriate forms of quality. The whisper as an articulation, 
denotes the intention of secrecy ; the falsette is used for the 
emphatic scream of terror, pain and surprise ; and the orotund 
voice alone gives satisfactory expression to the dignity and 
deliberation of serious discourse. The natural voice is accom- 
modated to the lively manner of colloquial dialogue, and familiar 
reading. It is not necessary to particularize here, the state of 
mind, calling respectively for a harsh, full, rude and courteous 
quality. The history of their specific appropriation, in the art 
of reading, may be learned from books. 

Regarding these forms of quality as distributed among man- 
kind, some voices are restricted to the harsh, or to the meager. 
Few persons have from nature, a pure orotund. Some speak 
altogether in falsette; and women arc apt to use it in careless 
14 



202 ABRUPTNESS OF SPEECH. 

pronunciation. Most voices however, may by diligent cultiva- 
tion be improved in quality. 

This mode of the voice is not to be regarded solely in the 
simple and insulated light, here represented. It is susceptible 
of combination with force, time, pitch, and abruptness. In 
short, Quality must necessarily be united with some of the forms, 
degrees, and varieties of the other modes. It must be either 
strong or weak ; its time long or short ; its emission abrupt or 
gradual ; and it must be of some definite radical or concrete 
pitch. Certain forms of quality are however, exclusively con- 
genial with particular conditions of these other modes ; thus 
smoothness will more generally affect the moderate degrees of 
force. Similar congenialities may be discovered by the slightest 
reflection. 

It would be easy to select from authors and from familiar 
discourse, phrases or sentences requiring respectively, the forms 
of quality here enumerated. But I designed to limit the pages 
of this work, consistently with the purpose of definite descrip- 
tion ; aiming to make known the hitherto unrecorded pheno- 
mena of speech, rather than add to the present excess of com- 
pilation. No diagram can represent these qualities of sound ; 
and every attempt to make them plainer than they are under 
their metaphorical designation, would be without success. 



SECTION X. 

Of Abruptness of Speech. 

On the first publication of this work, I anticipated objections 
to the classification of Abruptness, separately from Force. I 
now in the fourth edition, add this section 3 to state some of the 
grounds of that classification. I had not proceeded twenty 



ABRUPTNESS OF SPEECH. 203 

. in the first desultory record of observations on the voice, 
before the fulness of the radical opening was perceived to be a 
fact of very general occurrence in speech. On observing 
further, its cause was traced to a certain occlusion of the breath ; 
and this was found to be an important and peculiar agent in 
the production of accent, tremor, and syllabication. Finding 
it could not be very precisely arranged under the mode of Force, 
to which it is partially related, I resolved to make it a mode by 
itself; yet a mode with differences in degree only, not in form ; 
and unlike every other mode, in having but two positions in 
speech : one more obvious, at the opening of the radical ; the 
other, less remarkable but equally efficacious, in the vocule at 
the end of the subtonic elements. It is in the first case, a 
manner of enforcing Force, not merely by a higher degree of 
that force, but by another and peculiar mode. That is, abrupt- 
ness may be added to force, to render it more emphatic ; just 
as force may be added to passionative intonation, to enhance 
its expression ; or as any one mode of the voice may be united 
with another, for an additional or peculiar effect ; thus making 
abruptness and force, each with the other, co-efficient but not 
identical causes. 

The mechanism and action that produce this Abruptness, 
consist in an occlusion of some vocal passage, and a forcing of 
the breath against that obstruction, till the voice issues with a 
sudden opening of the occlusion. Thus it appears to be a 
momentary function ; and therein to be distinguished from force, 
which is essentially made on some duration of time, quality or 
intonation ; for force to be strong and momentaiy, must be 
abrupt. But further, abruptness may be equally applied to the 
initial of quality, to make its harshness more shocking; of the 
Orotund, to make the fulness of its radical more impressive ; 
and of pitch, to mark conspicuously its places on the scale. 
We have shown, on what occasions it governs the construction 
<>f syllables; and how it produces a fluent coalescence of ele- 
ments, in continued discourse. We shall learn hereafter, how 
it effects clearness of articulation ; how, in its moderate di 
for it is here plainly contradistinguished from inipre>si\e/»/v, ; 



204 ABRUPTNESS OF SPEECH. 

it is the principal formative cause of the tremulous scale ; and 
how it is related to the Shake of Song. Although the voice, 
without this mode, would want one of its striking characteristics 
in expression, and fail in its important uses, for emphasis and 
fluent articulation ; yet the full and ready power over this means 
of energetic speech is possessed by few, and is acquired only by 
attention, and by strenuous effort. When it is instinctive with 
an individual, it is the indication of an excitable nervous and 
muscular system ; and although often associated with a quick 
and effective intellect, it is not necessarily nor always a sign of 
it. The explosive bark of the dog, and the short, abrupt, and 
repeated syllable-like put of the strutting turkey, are, as much 
a sign of mere animal anger, in one case, and of what seems to 
be unconscious vanity, in the other, as a like abruptness would 
be, of some of the vulgar passions of the ignorant and thought- 
less part of mankind. I say, of a sub-animal, unconscious vanity, 
for conscious vanity is exclusively a human vice. 

To this explosion of the voice, which as a peculiar means of 
articulation and expression, has never been systematically re- 
cognized, or has received only a transient and heedless notice 3 
we have occasion to make continual reference in the course of 
this work. Its most remarkable employment will hereafter be 
shown in the full and sudden opening of the radical movement. 
This abruptness, or as we call it, Radical stress, will be con- 
sidered hereafter under the Mode of Force, not as properly 
one of its forms ; but to connect it with two of the other 
stresses, which having no abruptness, are justly classed with 
that division. 






THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 205 



SECTION XL 

Of the Time of the Voice. 

Two of the cherished relationships of man to man arc selfish- 
ness and emulation. Accustomed therefore to regard himself in 
the light of personal importance, and of relative position, he is 
prone to look for consequence and rank in natural things. But 
Nature affects neither egotism nor precedence. When the five 
modes of the voice are brought before us, we have that aristo- 
cratic bias in human curiosity, to discover which is the most 
important. Yet all are essential and equal in the self-satisfied, 
and unjealous purposes of Creation; where alone, the Republi- 
can Idea does, and until man shall be as wise, and modest, and 
unenvious as Nature 3 ever can present itself. Considering 
Quality, or its occult Substratum, as notional metaphysicians 
would call it, to be the material of the voice, we see the neces- 
sity of its universality : and we shall find that Time, the mode 
we are now about to consider, is an equally pervading constitu- 
ent of speech. 

The degrees in duration or in the time of the voice, are repre- 
sented though indefinitely, by the terms, long, short, quick, and 
Blow; and are variously used, both for simple narrative, and 
for expression. 

To be definite ■; let long and short designate the time of the 
Syllables relatively to each other; quick and slow, the utter- 
ance of any series or aggregate of words. Thus a syllable has 
a long or short time, or Quantity, as it is called in this ease : 
while a phrase, ail entire sentence, or a continued current of 
diseour>,. is pronounced in quick or slow time. The occasions 
for employing these last divisions of time are well known. The 
state of dignity, deliberation, doubt, and grief affect a slow time: 



206 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

that of gayety, anger, and eager argument, together with paren- 
thetic phrases, assume the quick time in utterance. 

It is necessary however, to be more particular on the time of 
individual syllables, comparatively considered ; and to regard 
them otherwise than under their ordinary prosodial distinctions. 

The time of syllables has undistinguishable shades of differ- 
ence j from the shortest utterable, to their utmost prolongation 
in oratorical expression. To reduce this indefinite view to 
available divisions, for future reference, we will arrange syllables 
under three classes. Let the First embrace those restricted to 
the shortest quantity : the Second, those limited to a quantity 
somewhat greater than that of the first : the Third, those of a 
quantity, varying from the shortest, to even an indefinite pro- 
longation. 

To the First class belong many of those syllables terminated 
by an abrupt element ; and containing a tonic, or an additional 
subtonic, or the further addition of an atonic, such as at, ap 9 
elc, hap-less, pit-fall, ac-eep-tance. It is not the short quan- 
tity alone of a syllable that gives the character to this class ; 
since many, with the construction of the third may be, and 
sometimes are in common usage, equally short. The syllables 
now under consideration, have this essential characteristic 3 they 
cannot be prolonged, without deforming pronunciation. The 
word cdnvict, when accented on the first syllable as a noun, and 
on the last as a verb has, in simple utterance, a certain quantity 
allotted to the accented syllable. If, for the purpose of rhe- 
torical expression on the noun, the time of the first syllable is 
indefinitely prolonged, the identical character of the word still 
remains, notwithstanding that extension. But when we give 
the last syllable of the verb, to convict, a similar extension, its 
drawling pronunciation is remarkable. The syllables assigned 
to this first class, not admitting an alteration in quantity, may 
be called Immutable syllables. I shall hereafter show their 
relations to the movements of pitch, and to the functions of 
accent and emphasis. 

To the Second class belong most of those syllables termi- 
nated by an abrupt element, and containing one or more sub- 



TIIE TIME OF THE VOICE. 207 

tonics or atonies, with a short tonic. The subtonic in this case 
allows an additional time, greater than that of syllables in the 
preceding class ; while the abrupt element and the short tonic 
limit even this moderate extension. Of this class are yei\ 
what, Up, grat-itnde, des-truc-tion. In these instances the 
syllables are longer than those of the immutable class ; and 
for the purpose of expression, the subtonics may be slightly 
extended beyond their length, in simple utterance. But with 
undue prolongation, they have the like offensive drawl and syl- 
labic deformity perceived in the forced extension of the immu- 
table class. As those included under the present head admit 
of a slight change in quantity, they may be called Mutable 
syllables. 

To the Third class belong all those syllables terminated by a 
tonic element, or a subtonic, except b, d, and g. Of this 
kind are go, thee, for, day, man, de-lay, he-guile, ex-treme, 
care-\ess, and re-volve. If the speaker can give full audibility 
to the essential guttural murmur of the subtonics, b, d, and g, 
their position, at the end of a syllable, allows a limited prolonga- 
tion, without obscuring the character of the syllable : as in the 
words deed, plague, babe, res-tor ed. But the effect in these 
cases, is by no means to be compared with that of an extension 
of time upon other subtonics, and on tonics. In the above pure 
examples of this class, the quantity may be prolonged, without 
the disagreeable effect, produced by an increase of time, under 
the preceding classes. It is the peculiar character of these 
syllables, that they preserve their identical syllabic sound, 
through every degree of prolongation; while the immutable 
and mutable, in some cases can scarcely be recognized under a 
forced extension. From their allowable variety, the syllables 
of this class may be said to be of indefinite quantity ; and may 
be called Indefinite syllables. They furnish important means 
for the expression of speech; some of its most passionative 
forms, being made on syllables, with this power of indefinite 
prolongation. 

The reader is to receive the foregoing classification, as one 
adapted to our view of the expressive uses of time. The inves- 



208 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

tigation of the causes of expression, soon suggested the neces- 
sity of other distinctions of quantity, than those of long and 
short ; which, after a thousand years and more, of pretending 
observation, we continue to transcribe from the meager record 
of Greek and Latin prosody. The phenomena of expression 
first directed the division here made ; and however it may be 
otherwise applied, it will be necessary for the ready explana- 
tion of future parts of this essay. Whatever may be thought 
of its sufficiency, I must still believe ■> it is high time for the 
superannuated sages of classical literature, to throw aside the 
Greek and Roman auscultation in their prosodial researches ; 
and try if time, with a new vocal analysis, may not effect upon 
them, one of those renovations of sense, which it is said, have 
now and then resuscitated the torpid perceptions of extreme 
longevity. 

The power of giving indefinite prolongation to syllables, is 
not commonly possessed by speakers. It is true 3 the daily use 
of the voice frequently calls for extended quantity ; but daily 
discourse, is often simple narrative, or if directed by an excited 
state of mind, is that of active argument, or of contending 
interests, which employ for the most part, the short time of 
syllables and the quick course of utterance. Still, the asser- 
tion that a long quantity is not easily practicable, may seem to 
be questionable : since persons who sing can readily extend 
their time to an indefinite length ; and all utter cries in the 
same manner. But these voices are generally made on pro- 
tracted notes ; while the difficulty to which we here allude, is 
in the execution of the equable concrete of speech. We have 
shown that different forms of the radical and vanish are respec- 
tively employed in speech, and song. Without attention to 
these differences, it is sometimes difficult to restrict them to 
their appropriate places. A reader who has not by practice, a 
facility in executing the long quantities of speech, will be lia- 
ble, in extending his syllables, to fall into the protracted radi- 
cal or protracted vanish of song. On the other hand, when 
persons without a musical ear and a singing-voice, imperfectly 
remember and endeavor to imitate, the melodial successions of 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 209 

song, they are apt to change many of its notes, into the equable 
concrete of speech. Prolonged cries, and interjections which 
are only more moderate cries, are always made either by the 
protracted notes of song, or by movements through the wider 
intervals and their waves ; and though these intervals and waves 
are both proper to speech, yet the prolonged cry and interjec- 
tion are the forced effect of occasional passion ; and this not 
often occurring in ordinary utterance, the cause is not con- 
tinued, and the vocal practice not confirmed. 

The foregoing notice of the exclusion of the peculiar intona- 
tions of song from speech, furnishes one reason why persons of 
great accomplishment as singers, are nevertheless indifferent 
readers or common-place actors. Other causes will hereafter 
be assigned, for the general want of interchangeable facility in 
the exercise of the arts of song, and speech. That arising from 
the different structures of the radical and vanish in the two 
cases, is not the least influential. The endowed singer may 
have at command all the means of expression, proper to song : 
but these means, as we shall learn, are peculiar to song, and 
are not transferable to speech ; and while he is able to clothe 
every feeling of the Composer, with the melodious succession 
of his long-drawn notes, his disqualified attempts at speaking 
intonation, strip off or tear to pieces, every expression, to be 
spread by the equable concrete, over the language of the Poet. 

To return from this account of different forms of the con- 
crete, to the consideration of the uses of its varied quantity. 
An immutable, mutable, and indefinite time, has each its appro- 
priate manner of fulfiling the purposes of expression. It is 
however, upon indefinite syllables that the most graceful and 
dignified effect of intonation is accomplished ; as we shall learn 
in future parts of this essay. Readers who arc ignorant of the 
principles of quantity, are yet aware of the necessity of a deli- 
berate movement, for a grave and sentimentive expression. 
They therefore, endeavor to supply the want of a long syl- 
labic time, by slight pauses after words, and even between 
syllables. Propriety and taste however, allow here no compen- 
sation: they require most of the prolonged time in dignified 



210 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

utterance, to be spent on the syllable itself, and reject the other 
means, as offensive monotony or affectation. 

Eminent instances of the essential importance of long quan- 
tity may be shown, by considering the syllabic construction of 
sentences with reference to expression : for since the display of 
certain states of mind requires the prolonged time of indefinite 
syllables, it may happen that such states are to be expressed 
on the limited duration of a mutable, or the mere moment of an 
immutable time. This may be illustrated by a passage from 
the fourth book of Paradise Lost, where Satan is brought 
before Gabriel. In the dialogue between them, one of the 
replications of Satan is as follows. 

Not that I less ' endure,' or shrink from pain, 

Insult ing angel ! well thou know'st I stood 

Thy fierc-est, when in battle to thy aid, 

The blasting vollied thunder made all speed, 

And seconded thy else not dread-ed spear. 

But still thy words at random, as before, 

Argue thy inexperience what behoves 

From hard assays and ill successes past 

A faithful leader, not to hazard ' all ' 

Through ways of danger by himself untried : 

'I,' therefore, 'I' 'alone' first undertook 

To wing the desolate abyss, and spy 

This new created world, whereof in Hell 

Fame is not silent, here in hope to find 

Better abode, and my afflicted powers 

To settle here on earth, or in mid air ; 

Though for possession put to try once more 

What thou and thy gay legions ' dare' against : 

Whose easier business were to ' serve' their ' Lord' 

High up in Heaven, with songs to hymn his throne, 

And practis'd distances to 'cringe,' not fight. 

The language of this extract variously embraces argument, 
narrative, and passion. We here refer to the last. I have 
marked in italics, some of the syllables representing that state, 
but which are incapable of prolongation. The syllables, less, 
shrink, suit, fierce, else, and dread, belong to our class of 
mutables, yet they cannot be extended, without making in the 
several cases, the prolonged radical on I, e, and r; and this 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 211 

would change the pronunciation to a drawl. Now we suppose 
less, taken with endure, to embrace the mental conditions of 
suffering and resignation 3 shrink, those of taunt and exultation >, 
suit, those of complaint, pride and reproach j fierce, that of 
scornful defiance j else, a contingency of self confidence and 
contempt j and dread, when interpreted by the preceding excep- 
tive, else, a similar contingency of self-relying courage. The 
expression of all these conditions, as we shall learn hereafter, 
calls for a prolonged quantity, on the wider intervals of pitch, 
and on the wave ; which the shortness of the elemental sounds, 
in the above emphatic syllables, does not allow. The emphasis 
of stress might indeed be laid upon them, but this would not 
express their purpose. The last line however, affords a more 
conspicuous illustration of the subject before us : for of the 
words not fight, the first is only mutable ; and the last being 
strictly immutable, cannot be at all extended, without a dis- 
agreeable departure from correct pronunciation. This phrase 
representing a state of strong contempt and exultation, its 
expressive intonation should be made upon an indefinite time. 
A reader of delicate perception can never satisfy his ear on 
these restricted quantities. I have throughout the extract, 
marked with inverted commas, a few words, embracing states 
of mind that call for wide intervals on an extended time ; and 
these words by their power of indefinite prolongation allow the 
required expression. 

I add here another exemplification of this subject, from the 
generic and brief conception of that magnificent picture of 
Satan's Imperial Presence in Pandemonium, at the opening of 
the second book of JParadise Lost. 

High on a throne of royal state, which far 
Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind, 
Or,where the gorgeous East with richest hand 
Showers on her Kings barbaric pearl and gold, 
Satan exalted sat. 

In these lines, Milton, with a just instinct of versification, 
has employed long quantities, in happy adaptation to the senti- 
mentive dignity of the description. 



212 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

I use here, rather remarkably, the term, instinct of versifica- 
tion, not in oversight of the intelligence with which this Extra- 
ordinary Man executed every high design and every tittle of 
his work ; but because it is clearly seen he did not intend to 
construct the measure of his poem by the rules of quantity 
alone. The development of the full resources of an accentual 
versification by Milton, was a new and absorbing labor. Had 
this advance-step preceded him, the originality and restless 
enterprise of his intellect, would most probably have joined 
with the many principles of Greek and Roman composition, so 
happily transferred to his own language 3 the accomplishment of 
the supposed impossibility of adopting the rules of their prosody. 
In most of the words of the above example, where the majesty 
of his thought so secured the homage of quantity, some of the 
syllables suddenly arrest the perception of extended movement 
and deliberate dignity, produced by the indefinite time of those 
words. The syllables state, rich, and sat, are too short for 
the otherwise good iambic temporal measure : and the word 
barbaric occasions some irregular contrariety in the impressions 
of quantity and accent. In the abstract pronunciation of this 
word, the first syllable, bar, is somewhat longer than the second, 
which will not, in this case, bear unusual extension. And as 
the longer syllable is here in the place of the weak syllable of 
iambic accent, the impressiveness of exceeding length thus re- 
verses the succession of the prevailing measure. Nor does the 
simple meaning of the epithet barbaric, allow a sufficient degree 
of accentual stress on the second syllable, to overrule the im- 
pressiveness of greater length in the first. If the reader, 
excusing the rhetorical change, will substitute the adjective 
orient, for barbaric, he will perceive by comparison, the differ- 
ence between the accentual and the temporal impression. 

Showers on | her kings | her or ] ient pearl | and gold. 

Now whether the first and the fourth section of this line is 
considered respectively in order, a trochee and an iambus, as 
here marked, or as a dactyl and an anapest, as they may be 
read, by license in our iambic measure j the admissible pro- 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 213 

longation of the indefinite syllable or-e, produces a sentimentive 
dignity of utterance that cannot be effected on the short time 
of the accented syllable of barbaric. And it may be added 
further, that this line does fulfil the conditions of poetic quan- 
tity, as completely as any line ever constructed with Greek or 
Roman words.* 

To a bad reader, nearly all sentences are alike, however 
improperly constructed for vocal expression. While he who 
looks abroad for excellence, through all the ways of the voice, 
must often find the tendencies and demands of his utterance 
restricted, by the unyielding character of an immutable phrase- 
ology. A limited discernment, and the common uses of quantity 
often suffice to set forth the thoughts of an author ; but a senti- 
mentive or a passionative expression will in many cases be 
imperfect, or lost, if tried on the short time of syllables. A 
reader who can assume the mental state of the poet, will not 
be able to give the prompted expression to part of the last line 
of the following example. It is taken from Gabriel's answer 
to Satan's apology for his flight from Hell, just quoted, and is 
a comment on the title of faithful leader, vaunted by Satan. 

name, 
sacred name of faithfulness profan'd ! 
Faithful to whom? to thy rebellious crew? 
Army of Fiends, Jit body to Jit head. 

* If the reader would know how certain words may be pronounced as a foot 
or prosodial section, either of two or of three syllables, let him recur to our 
principles of syllabication. The wordl shotcers is one syllable, when the e is 
omitted; the dipthongal tonic ou, vanishing directly into the subtonic r, as in 
shoivrs. If the sound of e is retained, that element requires its radical and 
vanish, and the word becomes thereby, of two syllables, as in show ers. The 
trisyllable orient, is reduced to a dissyllable, by withholding a radical from the 
sound represented by i, and thereby dropping that sound as a distinct syl- 
lable. Now i, in the trisyllable, represents the sound of ee-\, and ee-l by 
readily changing into the subtonic y-e, coalesces with the succeeding tonic 
e-nd; thus y taking the place of ee-l, joins itself to the subtonic n, to form 
the contracted syllable yent. The word orient, in correct pronunciation, 
is a true dactyl in quantity. I have set it as an iambus, not intending to 
defend the propriety of the change, but to form thereby, a regular iambic Hue, 
and to illustrate one of the principles of English pronunciation. 



214 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

The six syllables of this last phrase are short, and all the 
emphatic ones are immutable. They contain a degree of admi- 
ration at the well marked fellowship, between a ringleader and 
his crew, mingled with scorn at the wicked faithfulness of the 
rebellious outcast : and these states of mind, we shall learn 
hereafter, cannot be eminently shown on the abrupt shortness 
of the syllabic time here employed. With an accomplished 
speaker, the management of this phrase would be like the efforts 
of a musician of feeling and skill, on a limited instrument : and 
the different effect of his voice, on the above short syllables, 
and on indefinite quantities embracing the same states, would 
be like the effect of the inexpressive chattering of the harp or 
piano-forte, compared with the rich resources and swayful con- 
crete of intonation, in the violoncello. The harsh and unyield- 
ing character of the short syllables in the above example, would 
be striking to a good reader, from its contrast with the preced- 
ing phraseology ; in which, the two inter jectives, the words 
name, profaned, whom, thy, creiv, army, fiends, and perhaps 
faith/W 3 being all of indefinite time, and some of them empha- 
tic 3 afford the most ample means, for a true and elegant into- 
nation of the sentimentive state of mind they convey. 

Although abrupt and atonic elements produce many instances 
of short syllabic construction, that do not admit the extended 
forms of intonated expression 3 yet most sentences contain the 
amount of prolongable syllables, which the state of mind may 
require. For it is not necessary, that every word should bear 
the full expression, conveyed by an extended intonation. One 
or two emphatic long-quantities, assisted by an accordant, 
though faint intonation, on the short and unemphatic syllables, 
in a manner to be described hereafter, will sufficiently convey 
the thought and passion embraced by the sentence. The inde- 
finite syllable par in the following line has a variable quantity, 
which, without impropriety, may be doubled or more, in expres- 
sive utterance ; and the same may be said of bleed. 

Pardon me thou bleeding piece of earth, 

That I am meek and gentle with these butchers. 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 215 

The circumstances of the scene in Julius Casar, from which 
this is taken, inform us that Mark Antony's mental states, 
expressed in the first line are those of love, grief, and contri- 
tion ; his revenge does not appear until the second. The 
former, it will he shown hereafter, call particularly for an 
extension of syllabic time ; and we here regard the words far- 
don and bleeding as emphatic, since they respectively picture 
the special object of the suppliant, and the disastrous assassin- 
ation, that with self-reproach, he had delayed to punish. The 
accented syllables of these words freely receive the temporal 
prolongation ; and the employment of the required expression 
on their indefinite quantity, together with the assistance of the 
fainter intonation on the short and unaccented syllables, directs 
the stream of that expression every where throughout the line. 

In the preceding illustrations, the reader may now perceive 
some ground for our arrangement of syllables, according to 
their time, and in reference to the subject of expressive into- 
nation ; and may thereupon, admit the usefulness of its nomen- 
clature, for the purposes of criticism and instruction. Yet 
there is another view to be taken of the effects of syllabic 
quantity. From the limited resources, and the necessarily gen- 
eric character of language, the same word may in different sen- 
tences have a variation, so to speak, in its thoughtive meaning. 
It is still more common to find the same word with a different 
sintitnentive or passionative expression, in its changeable com- 
binations with other words. Now as some states of mind are 
only properly represented by a short and abrupt utterance ; it 
follows that the shortness of a word or syllable, which on one 
occasion cannot denote the state of mind that requires a pro- 
longed intonation j may on another, fulfil the purpose of force- 
ful expression with its immutable quantity. It was shown in a 
former example, that the word fight was incapable of the exten- 
sion, there necessary for the full display of scorn. When 
Hamlet in the violent sence with Laertes say- ; 

Why, I yi\\\ fight with him upon this theme, 
Until my eyelids will no longer wag j 



216 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

the quick time of the whole sentence, is generieally inclusive of 
the short time of its constituent syllables ; and the immutable 
quantity of the word fight, admitting of abruptness and force, 
may fully denote the resolute rage of the prince. 

Interjections are the only part of speech, employed exclu- 
sively for expression. Those common to all languages, consist 
of tonics, that freely admit of indefinite prolongation. Inter- 
jections are the instincts of the animal voice ; and always have 
an extendible quantity required for passionative expression. 
Other parts of speech are sometimes the picture of thought, 
and sometimes of passion ; and accommodated to this, there is 
a difference in the time of syllables. Had words been invented 
as signs of interjective expression only, most of them would 
have been made with a prolonged voice. Since then the tonic 
elements may be uttered either as long or as short quantities, 
and since the abrupt and atonic, in certain positions, inconve- 
niently produce short time in syllables, it might be inferred, 
that a language consisting entirely of tonic sounds, manageable 
both for long and for short quantities, would better fulfil all 
the purposes of the voice, than a language containing in part, 
elements of immutable quantity. But some states of mind are 
well represented by a short quantity, and a sudden issue of 
voice ; and the abrupt elements are in certain positions, the 
.best contrived means for producing that suddenness with the 
greatest variety and force.* And further, the atonies, with 
the exception of Jc, p, and t, though not properly explosive, 
yet arrest the concrete progress of vocality, and thus allow a 
succeeding tonic readily to take on the abrupt opening. A 
language made up of sounds, having the varied character of our 
tonic, subtonic, atonic, and abrupt elements, is therefore well 

* Those who delight in searching for undiscoverable things, may institute an 
inquiry j whether the abrupt elements derive their existence in speech, from the 
sudden utterance -which anger and other animal passions instinctively assumed, 
at that nonentity of date, the origin of language. The only origin of language 
we know, is that of a new term, invented for a new thought, or for an unnamed 
physical fact. 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 217 

accommodated to the system of those expressive signs, ordained 
throughout all vocal creation;* 

The employment of prolonged time, in the emphatic places 
of discourse, with a view to expressive intonation, seems never 
to have been thought of by ordinary writers ; and has been so 
far overlooked in the schools, that it has never received formal 
notice either in Rhetoric or Elocution. Dramatists, to whose 
taste and duty this remark is especially applicable, frequently 
neglect that proper adaptation of time, which would afford an 
Actor the means of adding the finishing touches of his voice, to 
the vivid and forcible picture of poetic composition. 

The judicious use of the variations of quantity is the very 
life of elocution, and the right hand of dignity in the rythmus 
of poetry and prose. 

The human ear has cognizance of two kinds of Proportion in 
the successions of sound : one embracing the relationship of its 
forces ; the other of its duration. 

The First consists in the perception of unequal forces alter- 
nately successive. Of this there are many species, derived 
from the order of succession, or the number of the varied 

* This remark will scarcely be acceptable, to those who have always thought $ 
the greater the proportion of vowels to other elements, the greater the harmony 
as it is called, of a language. And hence the sneer of Grecian scholarship at 
our barbarian cacophony ; if I may with a repugnant ear, thus lay an example 
of classical harmony on an English page. A language that would give to 
a, e, i, o, u, oi, and ou, an over-share of speech, would be very monotonous, 
and might perhaps remind us of its vowel-roots among the sub-animals: but in 
sound alone, it would interrupt fluency by an increase of hiatus, and would be 
far from our idea of the harmonious. The term harmony, taken from other 
arts, has not a very descriptive meaning, when applied to language. Architec- 
ture, Music, Painting, and the Landscape, require, respectively, a unity in their 
varied distribution of sound, color, form, and surface, and a variety in the unit- 
izing power of contrast, to make up the engaging effects of their harmony : 
while each has its peculiar manner if I may so speak, of Preparing, and Strik- 
ing, and Resolving its discords. What the literary critic calls harmony of 
language, is in reality a perception, not of consonant, but oi different, impres- 
sions on the ear, and consists in the varied and agreeable successions and con- 
trasts, of the forms of Force, Quality and Time, with the intersections of pause; 
shown in English Composition, by a due apportionment of tonic, subtonie, and 
atonic elements, to mutable, immutable, and indefinite syllables. 

15 



218 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

impulses ; as exhibited in the following illustration : where the 
first species shows a heavy impulse followed by a lighter one ; 
the second, one heavy followed by two lighter ; the third and 
fourth being respectively the reversed order of the other two. 



©9 ©# @© | ©#0 @o© | ©© ®|| | ©@@ *$Q 

The Second consists in the different duration of two or more 
sounds. Of these the species are formed upon the relations of 
long and short, and from the direct or reverse order of their 
differences ; as illustrated in the following diagram ; where the 
first section is meant to represent a sound of given length, 
succeeded by one of half or lesser fraction of its time ; the 
second shows a given length followed by two of shorter time ; the 
third and fourth being respectively the reverse in order, of the 
times of the first and second. 



I 



The reader can audibly illustrate these schemes, by tonic 
sounds respectively, of different force, and duration. 

We can at present, reach no further in the investigation of 
this subject, than to know 3 the measurement of these propor- 
tions is an agreeable exercise of the cultivated ear : and that 
we are more pleased with varied percussions, and varied dura- 
tions of any mechanical sounds, of these or other symmetri- 
cal arrangements, than with one unvaried order of percus- 
sions and durations, except regular pauses are interposed 
between them ; as in the following diagram : where the space 
of a pause is represented between a series of two, and of three 
similar sounds. 



*$ »• I ••* ••• ©@© 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 219 

As the voice has the power of this momentary percussion, 
and as syllables have different degrees of duration, both of the 
above proportional forms of force and time, may be applied to 
speech. The perception of the former is called Accent 3 that 
of the latter, Quantity. To one who has equally exercised his 
ear in these two kinds of measurement, the alternation of quan- 
tity is by far the most agreeable. For in the case of accent, no 
momentary sound, or 'ictus' can be tunable; whereas a pro- 
longed quantity is the essential of this agreeable quality. If 
then the perception of equal momentary accents, with pauses 
between the given aggregates, or of unequal momentary accents, 
alternately continued, is agreeable, the perception of a similar 
order of differing tunable quantities must be more so. Since 
the accentual function may be conjoined with quantity, by 
giving the abrupt ictus to the beginning of a prolonged syllable : 
while pauses may be interposed between aggregates that make 
up the succession of quantity. 

The above view regards only the ictus, and the time of sound, 
considered in itself. When quantity carries the intonation of 
the concrete, and thus becomes susceptible of vocal expression, 
its claims over accent are incalculable. 

The preceding remarks refer especially to the measure of 
verse : and a principal cause of the difference between a good 
and a bad reader therein, lies in a varied ability to attain an 
effective and elegant command over accent and quantity. 

The effect upon the ear, and the silent perception in the mind, 
of an agreeable variety in the successions of force and time, 
together with the silent division by pause, both in prose and 
verse, is called the Rythmus of Speech. 

It may be supposed, I allude to the Latin and Greek 
languages, when speaking of the quantity of verse. Noj it is 
to the English Language, and to the partial though unsought 
use of quantity, at present prevailing in its measure : and I 
wish further to intimate a possibility of the future construc- 
tion of its rythmus, on the sole basis of quantity j if the 
scholastic formalists of literature can be made to believe : the 
subject of ancient prosody has, for ages past, been exhausted ; 



220 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

that the labors of wrangling compilation, are inferior to the 
works of inventive improvement ; and that the investigation of 
their own respective languages, may assure to them the first 
births of ' genius j' and to their productions, if ambitious of such 
things, the consequent undivided heritage of fame. 

About the time we are taught to measure the syllables of 
Virgil, by the relations of long and short, we are told 3 our own 
tongue does not admit of the rythmus of quantity ; and that 
the prosody of the English as well as of other modern languages, 
is restricted to the use of the alternately strong and weak percus- 
sive accent. For the sake of the general principle in some im- 
portant matters, we do well, perhaps, in the present make-shift 
state of the human mind, to rely implicitly, for a time, on the 
authority of our teachers ; but many find reason to regret the 
necessity of this confidence in particular instances. From the 
finely governed and varied quantities of Mrs. Siddons, I first 
learned, by beautiful and impressive demonstration, that the 
English language posseses similar, if not equal resources, with 
the Greek and the Latin, in this department of the luxury of 
speech : and I thus found myself indebted to the Stage, for the 
opening of a source of poetical and oratorical pleasure, which 
the more virtuous pretences, and the hack-instruction of a Col- 
lege, either knew not or disregarded. While listening to the 
intonations of this surpassing Actress, I first felt a want of that 
elementary knoAvledge which would have enabled me to trace 
the ways of all her excellence. I could not however, avoid 
learning from her instinctive example, what the appointed elders 
over my education should have taught me ; that one of the most 
important means of expressive intonation, both in poetry and 
prose consists in the extended time of syllabic utterance.* 

* I had the good fortune to hear this admirable Actress, both in Edinburgh 
and London, while pursuing my medical studies, from eighteen hundred and 
nine, till eighteen hundred and eleven. On the first publication of this work, 
in eighteen hundred and twenty-seven, it came into my mind 3 though perhaps 
scarcely warranted, even by my admiration both here and subsequently ex- 
pressed^ to send her a Copy: not however, without sufficient warning, from 
some floating idea, that the work itself would be regarded by that peculiar 
Actor-ism of Actors, as an unwelcome, if not a presumptuous offering on the 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 221 

I do not here mean to say-> the quantity of English syllables 
has not been recognised by prosodians ; or its beauty not been 
perceived by a good ear, wherever it has been well used by 
design, or accidentally, in English versification, and in the well 
adjusted syllabic arrangement of prose. I mean to convey a 
regret that its powers have been undervalued ; that its elegant 
and dignified rythmic combination with accent and pause, have 
been overlooked in the modern affectation of the wwfluent 
plainness of a colloquial style ; and that it has been excluded 
from its place in elementary rhetorical instruction ; thereby de- 
priving the ear of one of its highest prerogatives of perception, 
in poetry and speech. 

We may very reasonably askj whether a classical scholar is 
gravely in earnest, or only vain of a college livery, in declaring 
his enjoyment of Greek and Latin temporal rythmus, while he 
is ignorant of similar resources of neglected quantity in his own 
language. The Greeks and the Latins have left us their gram- 
mar, their written words, syllables, and elements ; but our un- 
certainty of the true voice of these elements both individually 
and combined, has given rise, among modern scholars, to a dif- 
ference in the pronunciation of them. Assuming the English 
manner j the subject of Greek and Latin prosody may be re- 
solved into its simple principles, and thus described. Long 
syllables, or the temporal effects of long syllables, are made in 
two ways: First, by the absolute duration of syllables, consti- 
tuted like those we called indefinite : Second, by the short time 
of those we called immutable and mutable, followed by a pause ; 
the time of pronunciation added to the time of the pause, being 
equal to that of a long syllable. Short syllables are made by 
the short-timed pronunciation of indefinite syllables; or by 
immutable ones. Now there is nothing in this account of 
Ancient quantity, that is not true of the English language. 

And further, aol only arc theSe general principles of syllabic 
construction the same in Greek, Latin, and English, but the 

Theatric Altar of Anti-docility and Self-Sufficient ' Genius.' I think it waa then, 
and now after seven and twenty years, when I add this note, I more than think 
it is still so regarded. 



222 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

very syllables themselves are common to these three languages ; 
nay, it may be said, to all languages. For we must bear in mind 3 
there is in all languages, severally about the same number, 
both of vowels and consonants ; that most of these elements 
themselves, are common to all ; and that universally, no sylla- 
ble ever includes more than one vowel. Now the average 
number of audible consonants in every syllable being about 
three, to one vowel, the law of permutation in this case, would 
not furnish syllables enough to allow a different set, respectively 
to all the languages of past and present time. And it appears 
on comparison, there are not enough to make a discoverable dif- 
ference even between two. For if the reader will try every line 
of Homer, and Horace, he will find scarcely a syllable that 
does not form the whole, or part of some word in his own 
tongue ; both as regards the elemental sounds, and the most 
exact coincidence of quantity. But it is on syllables alone, the 
doctrine of quantity is founded, in every language. When there- 
fore, we deny that the English tongue admits of the temporal 
measure, we must come to the absurd conclusion, that identical 
sounds have in Greek type the most finished fitness for syllabic 
quantity, and in English have none at all.* 

* That this may not be regarded as an exaggerated conclusion, I add, from 
among a thousand authorities that might be quoted for the same purpose, the 
following substantial support to it. In the chapter on versification, in Baron 
Bielfeld's ' Elements of Universal Erudition 3' after many remarks on the subject 
of ancient quantity and modern accent, which in nowise qualify the following 
extraordinary assertion, the author says^ ' Properly speaking, there arenot, there- 
fore, in modern languages, any sensible distinctions of long and short syllables, but 
many that are to be lightly passed over, and others on which a strong accent, 
or inflection of the voice, is to be placed.' This was written towards the close 
of the last century, by the ' Preceptor to a European Prince, and the Chancellor 
of all the Universities in the Prussian dominions.' Even before his time, some 
prosodians were not without the sense of hearing; and though, the existence of 
long and short syllables in modern languages, has, since the epoch of his deep 
deafness, been generally admitted, yet it is still held to be impossible to make 
agreeable measure out of their relations. 

In candor, it should be stated 1 the Baron was a compiler ; but such writers 
generally represent current opinions, and they always know more of indexes, 
popular books, and other men's notions, than is either known or coveted by 
those who ' observe, and read, and think, for themselves.' 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 223 

These remarks refer principally to the time of syllables sepa- 
rately considered. There may be some differences in the several 
words of these languages, that render it easier to construct a 
rythmus of quantity in one than in another : we however, here 
speak of the admission of the system of quantity into English, 
and not of the comparative ease of its execution when adopted. 
There may be some facilities in the Greek for certain kinds of 
measure, arising out of the greater length of the generality of 
words in this language. The Greek may possess an advantage 
over the English in some of the purposes of vocal expression 
and poetic quantity, by having a greater number of indefinite 
syllables, and by making less use of the abrupt elements, in 
positions that produce an immutable time. Greek syllables 
have, in general, fewer letters than English ; and they more 
frequently end with a tonic element. 

The employment of quantity in English prose composition, 
sometimes accidentally produces the regular measure of Greek 
and Latin lines. If these occasional passages of temporal 
rythmus are well accommodated to the genius of the English 
language, it does not appear, why the studied contrivance of a 
poet might not use those existing quantities, in the continued 
course of verse. The following sentence has not the accentual 
form of any of our established metres, and is therefore, in its 
rythmus, purely English prose : Rome, in her downfall, bla- 
zoned the fame of barbarian conquests. This sentence, inde- 
pendently of its impressive tonic sounds and of the stress upon 
them, derives its character, from the relative position of its 
long and short quantities ; which is exactly that of a Latin 
and of a Greek hexameter line, as may be seen by comparison. 

Dactyl Spondee Dactyl Dactyl Dactyl Spondee. 



Ev StTie | as £w<j I trjpt, a I pypott | rtixpoj o | toto$. 

Si nihil | ex tant | a, eupe | ris placet | urbe re | linqul. 

Rome in her | downfall | blazon'd the | fame of bar | barian | conquests. 

When this last sentence is read with its proper pauses, and 
with deliberate pronunciation, it corresponds in measure with 



224 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

the long and short times of the superscribed Latin and the 
Greek. Let us not however think it strange, for anticipation 
takes off the edge of surprise 3 if a classic scholar should deny 
the identity of its temporal impression, with that of the collated 
lines. We are so little accustomed to regard English syllables 
in reference to their quantity, that it is difficult at first, to 
make it even a subject of perception. For he who, according 
to vulgar persuasion believes 3 there is an openness of the 
senses to first physical impressions, greater than that of the 
mind to new subjects of thought, plainly indicates that he has 
overlooked the ways and powers of both the senses and the 
mind ; since the senses have equally their ignorance, obstinacy, 
and prejudice ; they equally perceive what is familiar, and for 
a long time can perceive no more. And perhaps when the 
powers of observation, and experimental reflection shall be 
directed to the mind, exclusively as a physical phenomenon 3 
the now contradistinguished functions of the senses and the 
mind will appear to be one and the same, in most of their ways 
and means. A cultivated and searching eye and ear are as rarely 
found, as a well disciplined and self-dependent mind ; and a 
wise master, in human policy and morals, would not have more 
difficulty, where interest is not inimical, in effecting his designs 
of melioration, than an original observer in physical science 
would experience from the mass 3 I was about to say of the Phi- 
losophic world 3 upon soliciting an immediate assent to the real- 
ity of a manifest development of nature, or of some useful 
invention of art. It is a passive and an easy thing to look and 
to listen ; but, with a purpose of intelligent inquiry, it is a labor 
of wisdom to see and to hear. 

In speaking of the indefinite syllables of the English lan- 
guage, it was saidj their time might be varied without deform- 
ing pronunciation ; and we must recollect, that the abrupt 
elements, which generally terminate immutable syllables, have 
necessarily after the occlusion, a pause which allows an immuta- 
ble syllable, with the addition of the time of that pause, to hold 
the place, and fulfil the function of a long one. With these 
materials for the construction of a temporal rythmus in English 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 225 

versification, nothing but deafness or prejudice prevents our 
perceiving that its institution has been strongly prompted by 
nature, and is already half established in our poetry. "We allow 
a reader full liberty over the quantity of syllables, for the sake 
of expression in speech ; and song employs the widest ranges 
of time on tonic sounds ; why should we refuse to the measure 
of verse, a less striking departure from the rules of common 
pronunciation. 

Mr. Sheridan, who does not overlook the existence of quan- 
tity in the English language, and its use in the expression of 
speech, but who nevertheless, maintains that the genius of our 
tongue is exclusively disposed to the accentual measure j seems 
to ground his opinion on the special rules of Greek and Latin 
prosody, not being applicable to the cases of varying time 
in English pronunciation. He might as fairly have concluded, 
that the good English style of his own lectures could not be 
as perspicuous as a Latin construction, because its arrange- 
ment is different from the appropriate inversions of the latter 
tongue. 

On this subject we have briefly to inquire j Has the English 
language long and short syllables; and can these varying 
quantities be arranged, to produce an agreeable rythmus ? 
The answer is as brief, We have, equally with the Greeks 
and Romans, the long and short syllabic variation ; and it 
requires some other argument against the design of employ- 
ing it in metre, than that derived from its having never yet 
been done. I would not choose to contend with him, who 
doubts that quantity necessarily belongs to every spoken lan- 
guage The ancients not only recognized it in theirs, but 
availed themselves of its use in the creations of literary taste : 
and had Greek and Roman grammarians, in recording their 
special rules for the quantity of particular words, furnished us 
with a little ol* that philosophy of elemental and syllabic sounds, 
which authorized, or instinct ively produced the rules of their 
prosody, the moderns would in all probability, have seen its 
application to their own languages. 

Ji' the Greeks did not derive the Knowledge and use "t" 



226 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

Quantity from Egypt and the East, there is some ground for the 
opinion, though this part of history is not altogether clear, that 
the restricted melodial character of their music 3 its relation to 
song 3 the care therein taken to adjust the temporal correspon- 
dence of syllables to notes 3 together with its forming part of 
the liberal education of their orators, poets, and philosophers 3 
may have led to the close investigation of quantity, and to its 
employment by the later Greeks in their rythmic composition. 
Eor we are not justified in assuming its early use, at the date 
assigned to the Iliad ; since the fabulous accounts of that Poem 
leave its original condition altogether unknown. We cannot 
therefore avoid believing in its countless alterations ; and that 
its first mingled measure of quantity and accent was subse- 
quently changed to its present prosodial form. The modern 
extension of the science of music, to the principles and resources 
of the ingenius system of harmony, has rendered it indepen- 
dent of the support of words ; and the nice measurement of 
their time has been neglected, since the separation of the for- 
merly united duties of the composer and the poet. 

I here offer the conjecture, but leave others to determine its 
truth 3 that the establishment of Greek rythmus on the relations 
of quantity did contribute, with other causes, to refine the charac- 
ter of that language. We know what changes rhyme, and the 
accentual measure have made in the pronunciation of English ; 
and even with the maturity of this language, there is reason to be- 
lieve, that one means for enlarging the resources of its rythmus 
would be, to found its versification on the proportions of quan- 
tity. The occasional wants of poets would prompt them to change 
by license, many of our immutable syllables to indefinites ; would 
suggest the elision of atonic or abrupt elements, from the end 
of syllables ; and thus, by those broad excursions into thought 
which the common poet, together with the professional critic 
seem not to contemplate, are rarely disposed to encourage, and 
certainly never have accomplished 3 our language might be 
invited towards that condition of syllabication which constitutes 
in part, the prosodial superiority of the Greek. We know that 
the diaeresis and other licenses of Greek versification 3 to say 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 227 

nothing of the dialects, which must have been widely diffused 
by their literature j were constantly used for facilities in the 
arrangement of poetic quantity ; and we might inquire whether 
the addition to its alphabet, of the Heta and 0?nega, was not 
part of the contribution, suggested and afforded by the circum- 
stances of the temporal measure. 

Those who are in the habit of poetical composition, in the 
common accentual method, know how readily words of suitable 
accents are associated with the demands of versification. Nay, 
the ready gathering, or fluency of the ear, if we may so call it, 
is in this matter so unfailing, that if the sense of words be dis- 
regarded, there will be no hesitation in sorting such unmeaning 
discourse into any assumed accentual measure. I mean, that 
a person with a quick poetic ear and a free command of lan- 
guage, will find no difficulty in carrying on, for any duration, 
an extempore stressful rythmus of unmeaning words or phrases : 
while he who is not in the practice of metrical composition, 
even if aware of the required succession of accents, would show 
as much delay in gathering words to fulfil his accentual pur- 
poses, as the former would, under the present state of the 
English ear, in aptly furnishing syllables for a temporal ryth- 
mus. Habit must have given to the Extemporizing poets of 
Greece, if there could be or ever were such persons worth hear- 
ing j the same elective affinity of ear, for the appropriate quan- 
tity of their verses, as the similar class of Improvisatori in later 
Italy had for their required accents. At least two-thirds of 
the accented syllables of English words are indefinite in their 
time j and being allowably made either long or short, may be 
employed for a temporal rythmus. Until therefore, we have a 
larger experience in the use of quantity for modern versification, 
and until the English ear knows more of the effect of syllabic 
time than it does at present, we may be justified in considering 
the idea of excluding a temporal measure from modern lan- 
guages, as a groundless assumption. 

It is true, the number of monosyllables and dissyllables in 
our language exceeds that of the Greek ; and this may possibly 
render the former less fit than the latter, for the construction 



228 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

of certain systems of measure. On this ground it has been 
asserted that English words cannot be arranged in an agreeable 
dactylic succession. This may be the case ; yet we have too 
little sleight in the management of quantity, to justify a positive 
opinion on this point ; and the trials already made are not quite 
decisive. Habit is a forestalled and obstinate judge over exist- 
ing institutions, and often pronounces unwisely upon their better 
substitutes. For we know that an anapestic measure, founded 
on a mixture of accent and quantity, and nearly identical in 
effect with the ancient full dactylic linej is well suited to the 
syllabic and verbal condition of our language ; and that a very 
agreeable rythmus is produced by it.* Admitting the above 
objection, it will not overrule the design to establish the forms 
of Iambic and Trochaic measure, now in use, on the basis of 
quantity alone. 

Although English versification is avowedly founded on the 
accentual rythmus, entire lines are occasionally found, so satis- 
factorily fulfiling all the conditions of the temporal measure, 
that they might be judged by the revived poetical ear of a Greek. 
Such lines are however always preceded and followed by others, 
founded on the mingled relations of both quantity and accent. 
One who is skilled in the art of measuring the time of syllables, 
will, over this irregular rythmus, be shocked by the unexpected 
variation of its dissimilar impressions. An ear of delicate pro- 
sodial instinct, which yet makes no inquiry into its perceptions, 
often suffers this violence from English verse, but is ignorant 

* Let us subjoin a word here, for our delusions and prejudices. The dactylic 
foot, and the anapestic fall with a similar effect upon the ear. The ancients 
used the former, occasionally, through whole lines, in themes of the highest 
dignity ; and school-boys are taught that it richly and gravely fulfils its pur- 
pose. We use the anapestic foot for doggerel and burlesque, and believe too, 
there is something in its light skip especially adapted to the familiar gayety of 
its modern poetic use. Let a deaf worshipper of antiquity and an English pro- 
sodist settle this matter between them ; for, to serve a purpose, even the ex- 
tremes of contradiction are sometimes brought together. But on this, as on 
some other articles of the classical creed, they may be reduced to say, in the 
sole words by which the Yezedi of Persia who worship the devil, briefly ex- 
plained their faith, and pertinaciously defended it against a Christian mission- 
ary j 'Thus it is.' 



THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 229 

of its cause. The poet of high endowment, who has at the same 
time a ready discrimination of quantity, with copious thought 
and language at command, instinctively avoids in composition, 
much of the evil of these conflicting systems. And one of the 
merits of a good reader of verse, consists in changing our met- 
rical accents into conspicuous quantities, by extending the voice 
on all those syllables that have a stress in the measure, and will 
bear prolongation. 

From all that has been said on the comparative character of 
quantity and accent, and from the slow progress of modern 
nations in distinguishing the relations of the former, it would 
seem 3 of these two metrical impressions, accent is more easily 
recognized. Nor is it unwarrantable to infer, ^from the greater 
facility in arranging an accentual measure, that the first rythmic 
essays of all nations were in this form of versification ; and that 
the Greeks themselves passed through this rattling amusement 
of poetical infancy. There is no fact opposed to this inference ; 
and I could as soon be persuaded ■> the first instrumental music 
of Otaheite, was not the clattering of shells, as that the earliest 
songs of Greece were measured by the nice relationships of time. 
Our language, though neither young nor heedless in all the 
ways of thought, is yet within its unformed childhood, for the 
graceful steps of quantity : and many of those who with earnest 
wishes, but ineffectual means, may have designed to advance 
and refine it ; and who by taste and authority, were qualified 
to listen to living voices, with progressively meliorating influ- 
ence upon themj have only wandered off with an unavailing 
ear, among the silent graves of language in the remote realms 
of antiquity. We all feel, who have the heart to feel, an august 
delight over the yet enduring works of the distant dead. There 
is scarcely a page of the poetic rythmus of the Greeks and the 
Romans, or a remaining trace of their plummet and chisel, that 
might not make me forget, through intense contemplation, the 
lucre seclusion of a prison. Yet I could as soon admit, that 
the modern zeal in freighting our homeward ships with the 
fragments of their temples; and the covctousness of nations, 
for the very purloined possession of their statuary, ought to 



230 THE TIME OF THE VOICE. 

preclude the future use of the marble of their ancient, or of yet 
unopened quarries, for the accomplishment of equal or trans- 
cending works of art $ as that a just admiration of classic measure 
should prevent the endeavor to transfer to our own language, 
the admissible principles of Greek and Roman poetry. These 
remarks apply equally to the rythmus of Prose ; for the agree- 
able arrangement of words, by accent and quantity is, as the 
Ancients interwove it with purity, propriety, and precision, one 
of the most elegant characteristics of the Fine-art of Writing. 
But we now educate the ear and intellect away from all these 
good things, and down to the People ; in the delusive expecta- 
tion of a final Golden Age of morality and taste ; and as a 
Public-School protection against trading and political dis- 
honesty. 

I have offered the last few pages of this section, as no more 
than digressive and desultory remarks on a subject, intimately 
connected with the time of the voice, and with the cultivation 
of an important but neglected Mode of speech. 

The English language has an unbounded prospect before it. 
The unequaled millions of a great continent 3 into whatever forms 
of Anarchy, or Despotism, they may be hereafter led by a be- 
sotting, a be-slaving, and for this world at least, a be-damning 
love of the Tyrannic Wrongs of Vested Rights, of Official ignor- 
ance and fraud, of paper credit, debt, restlessness, and popularity 3 
must, I say, through every national Upheaving, and Engulfing, 
by the rage of avarice and ambition, still hold community in 
the wide and astonishing diffusion of one cultivated and identi- 
cal speech. Nor should we so far undervalue the emulative 
efforts of its future Scholars, as to suppose they will all merely 
regard with retrospective vanity, what has been done, and not 
extend their views to other and deeper resources of their art. 
But in looking forward to the establishment of English versifi- 
cation, on the basis of quantity, we must allow a limitation of 
the poet's abundance, for the substituted excellence of his few but 
finished lines. Our measure is now drawn from the two differ- 
ent sources of accent and quantity. To construct a rythmus 
by quantity alone, will require more rejections, and a wider 



THE INTONATION AT PAUSES. 231 

search in composition ; more copiousness in the command of 
appropriate words ; greater readiness and accuracy of ear, in 
measuring the relationships of time ; and longer labor for the 
accomplishment of a shorter work. I am here speaking of the 
great results of the pen. Of these, as of all enduring human 
productions, labor, associated with time, must be the assistant 
means ; and must deservedly divide the merit of the achieve- 
ment, with the wisdom that invoked their aid. Let him who 
could patiently devote a life, to laying-up store of ' goodly 
thoughts' for Paradise Lost, unravel the idler's fable about 
that ' inspiration,' of the so-called immortal works of man. 
Let them, who to the 'soul of genius' have joined the strong 
body of laborious care, say, wherein consists the true life, and 
the embalming of fame : let them touch the sleeve of early and 
voluminous authorship, and whisper one of the useful secrets, 
for accomplishing more that may wisely instruct and endure, 
and less that with ambitious haste, may only teach itself to 
fail 3 and perish. 



SECTION XII. 
Of the Intonation at Pauses. 

The term Pause in elocution, is applied to an occasional 
silence in discourse, greater than the momentary rest between 
syllables. 

Pauses are used for the more conspicuous display of thought 
and passion, by separating certain words or aggregates of words 
from each other. 

The philosophy of grammar consistently with those two great 



282 THE INTONATION AT PAUSES. 

Categories, Matter and Motion, has reduced all the words of uni- 
versal language to two corresponding classes : the Substantive, 
denoting Things that exist ; and the Yerb, denoting the various 
conditions of their Actions : all the other Parts of Speech being 
only specifications of the attributes of these things ; and the 
predication of their actions, with regard to time, place, degree, 
manner, and all their possible relationships. Now, pauses 
divide into sections, the continued line of words which seve- 
rally describe these existences and agencies, with their rela- 
tionships : while the restricted utterance, within these pauses, 
gives a sectional unity to the impression on the ear, and a 
clear perception to the mind, by their temporary limitation 
to a single subject of attention. The division of discourse, by 
means of this occasional rest, prevents the feebleness or confu- 
sion of impression, resulting from an unbroken movement of 
speech j no less remarkably than the skilful disposition of color, 
and light, and space, significantly distinguish the pictured 
objects and figures of the canvas, from the unmeaning positions 
and actions of a chaos and a crowd. 

The sections of discourse thus separated by pauses, vary in 
extent from a single word, to a full member of a sentence. 
There are indeed, some purposes of expression which require a 
slight pause even between syllables. It was shown that a full 
opening of the radical, must be preceded by an occlusion of 
the voice. Thus the accented syllable of the word at-tack 
being an immutable quantity, can receive a marked emphatic 
distinction, only by an abrupt explosion of the radical after a 
momentary pause. 

The times of the several pauses of discourse vary in duration, 
from the slight inter-syllabic rest, to the full separation of suc- 
cessive paragraphs ; the degrees being accommodated to the 
requisitions of the greater or less connection of the sense, and 
to the peculiar demands of expression. 

All the parts of a connected discourse should both in subject 
and in structure bear some relation to each other. But these 
relations being severally nearer, or more remote j grammatical 
Points were invented to mark their varying degrees. The 



THE INTONATION AT PAUSES. 233 

common points however, very indefinitely effect their purposes 
in the art of reading. They are described in books of elemen- 
tary instruction, principally with reference to the time of paus- 
ing ; and are addressed to the eye, as indications of grammati- 
cal structure. It is true, the symbols of interrogation, and 
exclamation are said to denote peculiarity of 'tone.' But as 
there is in these cases, no designation of the character, or 
degree of the vocal movements, the extreme generality of the 
statement affords neither preceptive nor practical guide to the 
ear. The full efficacy of Points should consist in directing the 
appropriate intonation at pauses, no less than in marking their 
temporal rests ; and a just definition of the term Punctuation 
would perhaps, be as properly founded on the variety of effect, 
produced by the phrases of melody, as by a difference in 
duration. Before Mr. Walker, no writer, as far as I can 
ascertain, had formally taught the necessity of regarding the 
inflections of the voice, in the history of pauses. 

It is important with regard to an agreeable effect upon the 
ear, as well as to thought and expression, to apply the proper 
intonation at pauses. The phrases of melody have here a defi- 
nite meaning, and often mark a continuation or a completion of 
the sense, when the style and the temporal rest alone, would 
not to an auditor, be decisive. At the same time, the purpose 
of the pause being various, an appropriate intonation must by 
its corresponding changes, prevent the monotony, so common 
with most readers, at the grammatical divisions of discourse. 

The effect of Pause, in separating parts of discourse, by a 
suspension of the voice, will be illustrated in the next section, 
on Grouping : and I now describe the successions of pitch at 
the different places of rest. 

The triad of the cadence denotes a completion of the pre- 
ceding sen<e, and is therefore inadmissible, except at a proper 
grammatical period. It does not however follow that it must 
be always applied at the close of a preceding sense ; for in 
those forms of composition called loose sentences, and inverted 
periods, there are members with this complete and insulated 
meaning, to which, an additional and related clause may be 
16 



234 THE INTONATION AT PAUSES. 

subjoined -» that consequently do not admit the downward ter- 
minating phrase. 

The rising tritone, by a movement directly contrary to that 
of the downward triad of the cadence, indicates the most imme- 
diate connection between parts of a sentence, separated by the 
time of the pause. The rising ditone carries on the sense in a 
diminished degree. The phrase of the monotone denotes a less 
connection between divided members ; the falling ditone still 
less ; while the downward tritone with rising concretes, and the 
downward concrete of the feeble cadence, produce a suspension 
of the sense, without positively limiting its further continua- 
tion. Now as the triad of the cadence, produces a maximum 
of distinction among the parts of discourse, and utterly closes 
a sentence ; the comparison of its downward intonation with 
the respective characters of the other phrases, may explain the 
causes of the varying indication of each, by showing the degrees 
of their departure from the form and direction of this termina- 
tive phrase. The degrees of connection between the members 
of a sentence are so various, and the acceptation of them by 
readers may be so different, that I do not here pretend to 
assign the species of phrase to every kind of rhetorical pause. 
From present knowledge on this subject, I would say gene- 
rally 3 the intonation at some pauses may be varied, without 
exceptionably affecting either thought or expression ; yet there 
are cases in which the species of phrase, from its exclusive 
adaptation to the character of the pause, is absolutely unal- 
terable.* 

* Let us here suppose the intonative and the pausal character of Punctuation 
to be united. Then with six pausal symbols, each of its proper duration of 
rest, a comma might denote the phrase of the rising tritone ; a double or 
dicomma, the rising ditone or the monotone ; a dash, if used, the monotone; 
a semicolon, the falling ditone ; a colon, the falling tritone ; and a period, the 
triad of the cadence. 

For mere system-making this might seem to be a, pretty adaptation, and so be 
taught in the schools ; "while through ages there might be no Observer to wnteach 
it. For this is a picture of theory. But the fixed correspondence occurs only 
in the case of the full stop, and the triad of the cadence ; the others as far as I 
observe, being under a vague rule^ that the falling phrases more generally go 



THE INTONATION AT PAUSES. 235 

The foregoing remarks on the use of the phrases of melody, 
have not been made strictly in allusion to common grammatical 
punctuation. Writers on elocution have long since ascribed 
the faults of readers, in part, to the vague indication of these 
points, and to the distracting effect of the caprice of editors in 
using them. 

In the notation of the following lines, which describe the 
highest moral sublimity, and stedfast independence j the phrases 
of melody are applied with reference to my own acceptation of 
the sense of the author, however erroneous that may be ; and 
to its distinct and appropriate vocal representation. I have 
presumed to differ, in the second and in the fifth line, from the 
punctuation of the London edition of Todd's Milton, from which 
the passage is taken. 

So spake the Seraph Abdiel, faithful found 

Among the faithless, faithful only he ; 

Among innumerable false, unmoved, 

Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified, 

His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal ; 

Nor number, nor example, with him wrought 

To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind, 

Though single. 

When the reader looks upon the change of pauses I have 
made in the following notation, he must bear in mind, that 
whether his decision is favorable to it or otherwise, it may still 
illustrate my idea of the power and place of the phrases of 
melody. If this is accomplished, we need not dispute about 
the free-will variety, as it always will be, of tastes, in the par- 
ticular application of these phrases. My purpose in this essay 
is to explain some of the untold functions of the voice ; not to 
contend with those who may on other points, know more than 
myself. 

In the use of the phrases of melody, at the pauses of dis- 
course, the phrase is to be applied to the last syllables pre- 

with the semicolon and colon; the rising with the comma and dicomma ; and 
the monotone commonly with these. 

I therefore offer this note as a passing thought, hinting only at an inquiry 
into the practical use of this, or other similar proposal. 



236 



THE INTONATION AT PAUSES. 



ceding the pause. Nevertheless, for particular purposes of 
expression, the monotone may be continued on the succeeding 
syllable. 

As this notation is designed to represent only the use of the 
phrases of melody at pauses, I have marked the whole passage 
with the simple concrete ; omitting waves of the second, and 
some moderate signs of expression, on the long quantities, 
which would be its proper intonation, as an example of that 
intermediate and dignified style, between the thoughtive and 
the passionative, which we called the sentimentive, or reve- 
rentive. 



So spake 


the Se raph Ab diel; faith — ful 


found 


-4-4 


4 4 4 4 4~ 4 4 


®1 



A— 


mong the 


faith-less. 


Faith- 


--ful 


on— 


-ly 


he. 


4 


4 4 


■w ^ 


4 


__^L_ 


4 


4 




w 


^ 



A — mong in nu me — ra- 



-ble falser un — moved, 



4 4- 4 



Un- 


— sha — ken, 


un— 


-se — ( 


luced, 


un — 


— ter — 


— ri — 


-fied ; 


4 


4 4 


A 


4 


4 




4 


4 


^r 1 





His loy — al— 


— ty he kept;? 


his 


love, 


his 


zeal. 




4 4 4: 






4 


A 










\ 



Nor 


num — ber, 


nor ex — 


-am — pie, 


■with him 


wrought^ 


-4 


4 4 




cT & 


gf nT 


4 








W m ~ 


1 



THE INTONATION AT PAUSES. 237 

To swerve from truth ; or change his con — stant mind, 



Though 



^-±=k 



The first pause at Abdiel is marked with a semicolon and a 
falling ditone ; since the preceding words, though not here a 
complete sentence, do not necessarily produce the expectation 
of additional and connected meaning ; for that expectation 
would require the monotone, or a rising phrase ; while the fall- 
ing ditone weakens for the moment, but does not dissolve the 
grammatical concord, between the members it separates. I have 
set the triad of the cadence and a period at faithless, not exclu- 
sively upon the right to assume the sense as here completed ; 
but with a view to prepare for the eminent display of the state 
of mind embraced in the remainder of the line. The editor has 
marked this place with a comma, and thus made the three suc- 
ceeding words, faithful only he, a dependent clause. I regard 
this clause, and with grammatical reason, as an elliptical sen- 
tence j thereby to promote the sentimentive expression. These 
words elegantly reiterate the previous attribution of faithfulness 
to Abdiel, with the further affirmation of his singleness in virtue. 
This definite and emphatic restriction of the individuality of the 
subject, is made with deep regret, over the rebellious rejec- 
tion of truth, mingled with exultation that Abdiel alone has the 
undivided merit of defending it. There is a touch of expression 
in these words, that even with all other due means for an ap- 
propriate utterance, cannot, as it seems to me, be answerably 
displayed j unless they are separated from preceding and suc- 
ceeding clauses, by the marked distinctions of the limitary 
cadences, and their punctuative periods. If the word faithless 
should be read with what is called in the schools, a suspension 
of the voice; which in their indefinite language means, avoiding 



238 THE IXTOXATIOX AT PAUSES. 

a fall 3 the designed expression, as I regard it, of the succeeding 
clause "will be perverted or lost. Milton's fine ear, his vivid, 
and discriminating intellect, qualified him, under Nature's 
system of elocution, to be a good reader ; and though he may 
not have been one by practice, I would with difficulty believe 3 
he silently thought the passage we are here considering, with 
the close sequence, implied by the editor's comma and semicolon. 

The next pause at false, is preceded by the rising ditone. 
The structure of this member evidently creates expectancy, and 
the species of intonation indicates a continuative sense. I 
have here placed the dicomma to obviate a momentary, though 
possible misapprehension of the noun-adjective, false, applied 
to the Faithless 3 but here joined to the train of epithets dis- 
tinguishing the Loyal Seraph. 

Of the four succeeding pauses, each rests on a single word. 
The first three are noted with the monotone, to foretell the con- 
tinued progression of the sense : the fourth, at terrified, has 
the falling ditone, to denote a change, but not a close of thought. 
I have here placed a semicolon, though not perhaps according 
to its common use. In ordering th^se four pauses, it would 
vary the intonation, without affecting the meaning, to give the 
last two syllables of u n seduced with a rising phrase, by putting 
se, on the same radical line with un. The phrase at kept, is 
the rising ditone, with the dicomma, and is expectant ; for love 
and zeal being equally with loyalty, the objectives of kept, are 
thus held within the prospective eye of the grammatical con- 
struction. For the three objectives being separated by the 
construction, the rising ditone at kept, prepares the expectant 
attention to bring them back into company on the ear, at a form 
of the cadence on zeal ; and thus impresses on the auditor, the 
true syntax of the sentence. 

At zeal, marked by the editor with a semicolon, I have 
applied a period, and the Feeble form of the cadence ; for this, 
as just stated, throwing back love and zeal, as objectives to the 
verb Jcept, prevents their bearing forward, as if nominatives to 
some expected verb ; which might not be avoided, by employing 
a semicolon at this place, with one of the continuative phrases 



THE INTONATION AT PAUSES. 239 

of melody. We may account for the semicolon at zeal, by sup- 
posing the editor considered the following word no?', as a con- 
nective. Yet it certainly begins a new sense; and in regard 
both to its place and its immediate repetition, may be looked 
upon as only a poetical inversion, and a redundancy of negative. 
The remaining part of the notation contains examples of the 
principles just elucidated, and therefore needs no explanation. 
I have thus endeavored to fill up in part, a blank in elocution, 
by giving a definite description of the intonation to be joined 
with pauses ; and by illustrating the manner of framing princi- 
ples to direct the use of the several phrases of melody. Those 
who desire knowledge of the structure of sentences, for apply- 
ing these principles, may consult books of rhetoric. Mr. Sheri- 
dan writes with his usual ability, on the subject of pause, and 
gives numerous exemplifications of its proper use 3 yet makes 
no analysis of that intonation which he may perhaps have joined 
with it, in the accomplished practice of his own voice. Mr. 
Walker has also given a masterly treatise on this subject, in his 
Rhetorical Grammar. He wisely saw the practical utility of 
uniting with his view of the temporal purpose of pause, an in- 
quiry into the applicable forms of his inflections. In a philo- 
sophical view of the subject, his treatise contains no description 
of the functions of pitch, beyond the ancient general distinctions 
into rise, and fall, and turn. Not having the materials, for a 
specific discrimination and use of the phrases of melody, he was 
under the necessity of regarding his four general heads, as ulti- 
mate species, capable of no further subdivision : and hence, the 
limited, the indefinite, and the erroneous application of his 
whole doctrine of Inflection at Pauses. Mr. Walker undertook 
the investigation of the subject of speech, without possessing a 
discriminating ear; without sufficient, if indeed any familiarity 
with certain distinctions of sound, long established in music ; 
and without seeming to keep in mind the means and end of 
philosophical inquiry. The example of the highest masters in 
natural science had taught, that all he should aim to accomplish 
would be, to separate by car, tlie individual and intermingled 
constituents of speech; to name these individuals; and to class 



240 THE INTONATION AT PAUSES. 

them with known facts in the history of sound. But the most 
precise nomenclature, if not the most comprehensive history of 
tunable sound, that is, sound distinguished from the endless 
kinds of noise, is contained in the science of music : and Mr. 
Walker appears to have had too feeble or too limited a percep- 
tion, or no perception at all, of its clear and abundant distinc- 
tions, to enable him to recognize an identity, or analogy between 
the speaking voice, and the familiar phenomena of musical 
sounds. 

Even though we might despair that future inquiry will teach 
us the structural cause of the vanishing movement, and of the 
orotund, and falsette voices j it is certainly now within the 
ability of a disciplined and attentive ear, to perceive, that forms 
of sound supposed to be peculiar to the human voice, are similar 
to others which have been accurately measured and definitely 
named in the classifications of music ; and consequently, that 
they might be designated by the same nomenclature, as far as 
the terms of music are applicable to the phenomena of speech. 
Such a method of investigation, with its satisfactory results, 
being the whole means and gains of a true and useful phi- 
losophy, we might as well believe 3 the Newtonian discoveries 
in optics, could have been effected, without a previous acquaint- 
ance with the laws of motion, the variety of colors, and the 
relations of mathematical quantity > as look for a description, 
and an available arrangement of the phenomena of the human 
voice, from one who is ignorant of the known distinctions of 
sound. 



THE GROUPING OF SPEECH. 241 

SECTION XIII. 

Of the Grouping of Speech. 

I have adopted a term from the art of painting, to designate 
the instrumentality of pauses, and certain uses of the voice, in 
uniting the related ideas of discourse, and separating those 
which are unrelated to each other. 

The inversions of style, the intersections of expletives, and 
the wide separation of antecedents and relatives, allowed in 
poetry, may be sufficiently perspicuous, through the circum- 
spection of the mind, and the advancing span of the eye, in the 
deliberate perusal of a sentence. But in listening to reading, 
or to speech, we can employ no scrutinizing hesitation : and 
though the instant memory may retrace to a certain limit, the 
intricacies of construction, the best discernment cannot always 
anticipate the sense of a succeeding member, nor the character 
and position of its pause. Our higher poetry, in the contriving 
purpose of its eloquence, gives many instances of extreme invo- 
lution of style : and the reader of English, is frequently obliged 
to employ other means, for exhibiting the true relationship of 
words, besides the simple current of utterance, that may be 
sufficient for the clear syntax of a more familiar idiom. 

The following are some of the means, by which deviations 
from the simple construction of sentences may be rendered per- 
spicuous in speech. 

The Clausal Limitation. Here the limitation is produced by 
pauses, only as divisional agents. 

The Phrases of* melody ; already in part explained. 

A reduction of the pitch and the force of the voice ; for which 
I use the term Abatement. 

A quickness of utterance ; here called the Flight of the voice. 

The Punctuative reference; which by noticeable pausea, 
directs, or recalls attention to the syntax. And 



242 THE GROUPING OF SPEECH. 

A means of indicating grammatical connection, that may be 
named the Emphatic Tie. 

I have summed up the several means here enumerated, under 
the generic term, Grouping ; and have given each a specific 
namej to invite attention to the subject, by the proposal of a 
definite nomenclature. 

The most common form of grouping the connected parts or 
clauses of a sentence, under a given condition of the voice, is 
by its unbroken line, within the boundary of Pauses. The 
subject of this Clausal Limitation, though not thus named, is 
so extensively treated in the Art of Elocution, that I give here 
bat a single instance of the power of the pause, in separating 
to a certain degree, the ideas of a sentence, and in giving the 
proper independency to each. Let us take, from the second 
book of Paradise Lost, the description of Death's advancing to 
meet Satan, on his arrival at the gates of Hell. 

Satan was now at hand and from his seat 
The monster moving onward came as fast 
With horrid strides. 

I have omitted the punctuation of this passage ; and if cor- 
respondingly read without a pause, it would not be absolutely 
destitute of meaning ; for the auditor would understand the 
general course of the action described. But in this case, there 
could be no expressive picture of the whole, through the con- 
nected individuality of its parts. Here are four clauses, or 
separate groups of thought, which should be indicated by three 
momentary rests. 

Satan was now at hand^ and from his seat 
The monster moving^ onward came as fast^ 
With horrid strides. 

The first division, ending with at hand, gives notice of the 
rapid approach of Satan. The second represents the monster 
Death rising from his seat, and is insulated by a pause at 
moving. This division is properly separated from the third, 
onward came as fast ; for though the third describes the further 
movement of Death, and in this view might seem to forbid the 



THE GROUPING OF SPEECH. 243 

separation, yet its principal aim is to show the speed of his 
progress, by comparing it with that of Satan ; and this justifies 
the distinction, here made. The last division, with horrid 
Strides, must be separated from the preceding; for if read, 
'd came as fast with horrid strides, the immediate connec- 
tion of the manner of movement with the declaration of the 
likeness between the time of it, in the two characters, might 
authorize the conclusion that Death was striding, as fast as 
Satan was striding. "Whereas the pause at fast, refers that 
manner of moving-onward to Death alone j agreeably to a pre- 
vious part of the context, where Satan is described, as moving 
on • swift wings.' 

Some of the uses of the Phrases of melody were stated in 
the preceding section. I here offer one or two examples of the 
effect of an appropriate melody, in carrying on the sense, and 
in producing an immediate perception of grammatical relation- 
ship : 

On the other side, 
Incensed with indignation, Satan stood 
Unterrified, and like a Comet burned, 
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge, 
In the arctic sky. 

Should the phrase of the falling ditone be used at the neces- 
sary comma-pause after burned, it will, to the car, destroy the 
grammatical concord between the relative that and the antece- 
dent, comet. By applying a monotone to the two words in 
italic-, the concord will be properly marked, notwithstanding 
the intervening pause at burned; the grouping power of the 
melody, in this case, counteracting the dividing agency of the 
pan-''. 

A similar instance of the power of the monotone, in effecting 
I elose connection of the antecedent with the relative, is shown 
at the pause after unheard, in the following lines: 

First, Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood 
Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears : 
Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud, 
Their children's cries unheard, that passed through firo 
To his grim idol. 



244 THE GROUPING OF SPEECH. 

Let us take one more example, illustrative of this principle 
of a grouping intonation : 

Art thou that traitor -angel, art thou he 

Who first broke peace in heaven, and faith $ till then 

Unbroken ? 

In this passage the phrase, in heaven, is interposed between 
peace and faith, the two objectives of broke. That the syn- 
tactic connection between these words may be impressively- 
shown, the slightest pause only is admissible after heaven ; and 
a more conspicuous one must be placed after faith. But 
the further expletive, till then unbroken, is immediately con- 
nected with faith ; and the only means for representing this 
close relationship, in contravention to the delay of the pauses 
so necessary, after faith, for another point of perspicuity 3 is 
by using the phrase of the rising ditone, or the monotone, on 
and faith. Thus the pause at this word, represents clearly the 
full government of the verb broke, while the continuative phrase, 
either of a monotone or a rising ditone, at that pause, prevents 
its dissolving the connection of the previous sense with the suc- 
ceeding expletive clause, till then unbroken. The pages of 
poetry are full of instances of phraseology that require the 
management of the voice here described. Milton and Shaks- 
peare cannot be read well, without strict attention to the appa- 
rent opposition between the purposes of the pause and of the 
sense, and to the Reconciling Power of the phrases of melody. 

A reduction of the Pitch, and Force of the voice being 
generally combined in reading, I have, in this section, desig- 
nated them collectively, by a single term, Abatement ; which 
is in most cases, to be read in the diatonic melody. Its power 
of grouping together the related parts of a sentence, is exempli- 
fied by the well known utterance, in a parenthesis. 

I come now to speak of the perspicuity, to be given to a sen- 
tence, by the Flight of the voice. There is a familiar rule in 
elocution, which directs us to use a quickened utterance on 
common expletive clauses. This function may be extended to 
other grammatical constructions. I give it here the importanc3 



THE GROUPING OF SPEECH. 245 

of a name and an illustration, from its affording assistant means 
for representing the sense of some of those instances of close- 
trimmed phraseology and extreme inversion, occasionally found 
in the higher poetical composition. 

In the following example, the part requiring the flight of the 
voice is marked in italics. 

You and I have heard our fathers say^ 
There was a Brutus once, that would have brook'd 
The eternal Devil to keep his state in Rome 
As easily, as a king. 

The word easily, here qualifies the verb hrook'd ; and one of 
the means for impressing this on the auditor, is by the rapid 
flight here directed. A London edition of Reed's Shakspeare, 
from which this passage is quoted, has a pause after Rome. 
As the purpose of the flight consists in allowing the shortest 
time between the utterance of related words, it suggests the 
omission of this pause, and the application of a slight one after 
easily. This tends to prevent the adverb from passing as a 
qualification of keeping his state, which certainly cannot be 
the sense of the author ; but which on instant hearing, might 
otherwise, be mistaken for it, without the aid of the altered 
pause and the flight. This is not the place to speak of the nice 
points of emphasis and of melody, to be employed with the flight 
in this passage j to give clearness and strength to its effect. 

Say first, for Heaven, hides nothing from thy view 
Nor the deep tract of Hell. 

To make it appear at once in speech, that the deep tract of 
hell is equally with heaven, a nominative to hides, the phrase 
of the monotone must be applied at view, with the flight of the 
voice on the portion marked in italics ; and a pause set after 
h ">'> //. and removed from view, where the editor has marked it. 

If the grammarian should raise objections to any of these 
proposed changes of punctuation, he must recur to the design 
of this section. We speak now of the means of addressing the 



246 THE GROUPING OF SPEECH. 

ear ; and its jealous demands sometimes require a separation of 
close grammatical relations ; and sometimes justify a neglect of 
the usual temporal rests, from the thought and expression in 
these cases being more obvious without them. The art of read- 
ing-well may compensate for voluntary faults on some points, 
by the accomplishment of eminent effects on others. 

What we call the Punctuative Reference, or grouping, is 
another means for bringing together words, or clauses, sepa- 
rated by grammatical construction ; as in the following 
example : 

Having the wisdom to foresee ^ he took measures 
to prevent $ the disaster. 

Here the idea of the disaster, should be immediately con- 
nected with the idea both of foreseeing, and preventing : yet 
by construction, foresee is separated from disaster ; and thus, 
without a pause at prevent, the momentary attention to the 
immediate agency of this verb on disaster, might obscure the 
relation between foresee and disaster. In this case, fore- 
see might pass for an intransitive verb. But with the clicom- 
mas, the similar pauses at foresee, and prevent, by making 
them emphatic words, assign the former to its objective case 3 
and connecting these words as fellow transitives, throw, by 
Punctuative Reference, their action together on disaster. 

Take another example, from Thomson's charming episode, of 
Lavinia. 

By solitude, and deep surrounding shades 3 
But more, by bashful modesty^ concealed. 

Here, without the directive grouping of the dicomma at shades, 
and at modesty, the picture of Thought might be obscured 3 and 
we should perhaps overlook the beautiful contrast between the 
unconscious and closer self-concealment, and that of the pre- 
viously described humble and retired cottage in the vale. 

The following, from Cowper's picture of the Empress of 



THE GROUPING OF SPEECH. 247 

Russia's Palace of Ice, in his ' Winter Morning Walk,' may be 
taken as an instance under this head. 

Less worthy of applause ^ though more admired, 
Because a novelty, the work of man, 
Imperial Mistress of the fur-clad Russ 3 
Thy most magnificent and mighty freak, 
The wonder of the North. 

The four parenthetic phrases in these lines, between applause 
and Russ, produce a slight intricacy 3 which requires the 
dicomma and its rest at these words, to bring together, on the 
field of attention, the clause that precedes the former, and fol- 
lows the latter ; and thus to make the impressive comparison 
between the works of nature, previously described, and this 
fantastic effort, in the works of art. 

I here remind the reader that the use of the dicomma, in 
punctuative grouping is pointed out under the fourth head of 
our explanation of the purposes of this symbol 3 in bounding a 
parenthesis, and thus directing attention to the extremes of the 
included member ; for the punctuative reference j as well as the 
Emphatic tie to be presently explained, is one of the applica- 
tions of the principle of parenthetic elocution. 

In the following sentence, the punctuative grouping, may 
give clearness to the reading ; but this cannot reconcile us to 
the awkwardness of its disjointed syntax. 

After he was so fortunate as to save himself 
from 3 he took especial care, never to fall 
again into j the polluted stream of ambition. 

Much more might here be properly said on the classifica- 
tion of sentences, and %r the time of pausing ; but with the 
Principle here exemplified, further inquiry is left to the dis- 
crimination and taste of others. Both reading and speech 
abound with occasions for the use of this punctuative reference ; 
but care must be taken to avoid the affectation of its use. in 
grammatical arrangements, where the style may be rendered 
perspicuous without it. 

We have made a distinction between the Clausal limitation 
within the boundary of pauses, and this Punctuative grouping. 



248 THE GKOUPING OF SPEECH. 

The former keeps together sectional groups of connected 
thoughts ; the latter brings together separated clauses and 
words, with their thoughts ; and both unite their influence, for 
the just and expressive elocution of those parentheses, usually 
bounded by the linear Dash. We have therefore dispensed 
with the use of this symbol ; its purpose being effected, both in 
silent perusal and in speech, quite as efficaciously, and with 
greater neatness to the eye, by the dicomma ; thus forming a 
case of the punctuative reference ; on which the sense of the 
member preceding the pause, is held over, or suspended in the 
mind for subsequent continuation. 

By the grouping of Emphasis or what is here called the 
Emphatic Tie, I mean the application of stress, and perhaps 
sometimes, of quality, quantity, and intonation, to words, not 
otherwise requiring distinction, for the purpose of associating 
those words and ideas which cannot, by any other means of 
vocal syntax, if we may so speak, be brought together or exhib- 
ited in their true grammatical and logical connection. The 
agency of this form of grouping, like that of the last, which 
we may now call the Punctuative Tie, is easily understood ; for 
related words however separated, are at once brought together 
in their real relationships, within the field of hearing, when- 
ever they are raised into attractive importance, by pause, or 
by force or any other kind of emphasis. 

The following lines, from Collins' ' Ode on the Passions,' 
embrace a construction, requiring the emphatic tie. 

When Cheerfulness, a Nymph of healthiest hue, 

Her bow across her shoulder flung, 

Her buskins gemm'd with morning dew, 

Blew an inspiring air-$ that dale and thicket rung^ 

The hunter's call, to Faun and Dryad known. 

The last two lines have an embarrassing construction. The 
phrases inspiring air, and hunter's call are in apposition ; but 
there intervenes a clause, that might make rung pass for an 
active verb, and thereby render call the objective to it. To 
show therefore, that by hunter s call the author means the 
inspiring air, previously mentioned, the words marked in italics 



THE GROUPING OF SPEECH. 249 

should receive emphatic stress. This is the best means for 
clearly impressing on the ear, that close relationship which is 
interrupted by the construction. 

This emphatic tie is often employed in combination with 
other means of grouping. Thus, in the several examples illus- 
trating the use of the phrases of melody, their influence will be 
-ted by applying this connecting emphasis to comet and 
fires ; children s and jwssed ; peace and. faith. In the exam- 
ples of the flight, the relationships between the words brook 'd 
and easily ; and between heaven hides nothing, and nor the 
deep tract of hell ; and in the punctuative grouping, the refer- 
ence of disaster to both foresee and prevent^ of concealment 
to shades and modesty ; and of miyhty freak, to applause; will 
be more manifest, by the additional use of the emphatic tie. 

In short, it is sometimes necessary to employ all the means of 
grouping upon a single sentence, in order to correct an irregu- 
lar syntax, and supply an ellipsis to the ear. The extreme 
distortion of English idiom in the following lines, must be 
exceedingly perplexing to a reader ; and, as far as I under- 
stand the Bense and the grammar, can be rendered somewhat 
less embarrassing, only by the use of all these means. The 
example is taken from the fourth book of Paradise Lost, at the 
end of Satan's address to the sun. 

Thus while he spake, each passion ; dinim'd his face 
Thrice chang'd with pale ; ire, envy, and despair; 
Which marr'd his borrow'd visage, and betray'd 
Him counterfeit, if any eye beheld. 

Milton uses the word pale, here, and again near the close of 
his tenth book, as a substantive. Its common adjective-meaning 
tends to throw some eonfusion into the sentence. Ire, envy, 
and despair, are in apposition with passion, and are severally 
concordant with the distributive pronoun each. Now the only 
manner in which I ean approximate towards a clear represen- 
tation of this blameable piece of latinity, is by making a quick 
flight over the portion, dimm'd his face thrice changed with 
fdle, and by an abatement thereon ; by laving a strong emphasis 
IT 



250 THE GROUPING OF SPEECH. 

on each passion, and on ire, envy, and despair, to mark the 
concord, by the emphatic tie ; by using the punctuative refer- 
ence at passion and pale ; and by applying the dicomma, with 
the monotone or the rising ditone, to both these words. 

After all, it is a hard picture to paint, for a taste that will 
have true colors, well laid on. Perhaps another hand, under 
the direction of our principles, may effect its expression by 
some more appropriate touch. 

In this and the preceding section, we have been more occu- 
pied with the audible means of marking the thoughtive meaning 
of discourse, than with the signs of expression. But some mean- 
ing in language must always be embraced by what we dis- 
tinctively called the passionative style. 

I would here point out to the classical scholar, a resemblance 
in the process and purpose of the punctuative reference, and of 
the emphatic tie, to that of the circumspect attention, always 
exercised in construing a Latin sentence. The English language 
has few variable terminations of noun, pronoun, verb and adjec- 
tive j by which their concord and government might be instantly 
perceived, however the parts of speech might be in position dis- 
joined from each other. In English therefore, as in some other 
languages, the construction is indicated, principally by the 
proximate, or what is called the natural, succession of words. 

The Latin language has in its varied grammatical forms, the 
means for instant association of all its related parts : hence, 
the mind is able to make at once, a clear and exact picture of 
the meaning of discourse j by arranging its proper order, how 
widely soever the words may be separated. The case of the 
adjective immediately joining itself to the case of the noun 3 the 
verb pointing out its agent and its object 3 the preposition, its 
subject j thereby grammatically unite or group the individual 
parts of speech, however scattered throughout the sentence. 
This dispersed position of related and self-uniting words, which 
is conspicuously used in the Latin language, is called in rhe- 
toric, the figure of Hyperbaton ; and the choice of arrangement 
allowed in the appropriate use of its various species, is a prin- 
cipal source of the impressive rythmus, vividness, and strength, 



THE GROUPING OF SPEECH. 251 

in Latin construction. The attention of the Roman orator, and 
of his educated or even of his illiterate audience, must have 
been closely, but from habit almost unconsciously, occupied in 
gathering, by grammatical relations alone, every word to its 
significant place on the field of the sentence. And this may be 
a reason, why punctuation, at least like ours, was unnecessary 
or disregarded both in Greek and Roman composition. The 
English language has not the adjusting concordance and govern- 
ment of the Ancient grammar ; and we are therefore, under irs 
loosely connected verbal relations, obliged to employ, among 
other means for perspicuity, beyond its common points j that of 
the Emphatic tie, and of the Punctuative grouping, to draw the 
attention of the hearer to separated, though related words 
and clauses, where the syntax, without this construing by time 
and stress, might be intricate or unintelligible. 

I have thus endeavored to show a similarity, in principle, 
between the Latin grammatical, and the English vocal methods 
of obviating any error or obscurity, incident to a hyperbatic 
syntax : the whole meaning of the sentence, being in one case, 
signified by the verbal signs of concord and government ; and of 
some particular meaning in the other, by vocally notifying the 
ear of those displaced relationships, not otherwise restorable, 
than through an impressive agency, respectively of the accent 
and the pause. 

In the present section, and in other parts of this essay, the 
exemplifications are chiefly extracted from two illustrious Poets ■> 
and from some of those who, directed by the same great Principles 
of their Art, are next to them in the bright brevity of the truth- 
ful and expressive Practice of it ; since the boundless range of 
their expressive reflections 3 the arresting, but resolvable intri- 
cacy of their styles the thoughtful bearing of their emphasisj 
together with the insignificance of scarcely a word j afford every 
variety of thoughtive and passionative construction, for exer- 
cising the full-sufficient, and illuminating powers of the voice. 
And as the greater includes the less, I am persuaded, that 
should the principles therein established be adopted by the 
reader, he will have no great difficulty in applying them, to 



252 THE RISING OCTAVE. 

more simple styles of conversation, of narrative, and of impas- 
sioned discourse, both in poetry and prose. Yet while thus 
drawn aside, from the perfection of nature in the human voice, 
to eulogize the admirable things of intellect, which it is intended 
and ready to display ; let me again repeat 3 I have taken upon 
me, not the part of the Rhetorician, but merely of a Physiolo- 
gist of Speech. 



SECTION XIV. 

Of the Interval of the Rising Octave, 

In the foregoing sections, the effect of Pitch was described, 
only as it is heard in the radical and vanishing movement through 
the interval of a single tone. 

It was shown, under the head of the melody of simple Narra- 
tive style, that the vanish never rises above the interval of a 
tone ; and that changes of radical pitch, either upward or down- 
ward never exceed the limits of this same interval. Now, such 
plain melody as then supposed is rarely found of long continu- 
ance ; but to avoid confusing the subject, I deferred the notice 
of those variations of concrete and of discrete interval, which 
are occasionally interspersed throughout its current. The wider 
intervals of pitch used for Expression in the course of a dia- 
tonic melody, are now to be described. 

By the term rising Octave, whether concrete or discrete, 
when applied to speech, is meant the movement of the voice, 
from any assumed radical place, through higher parts of the 
scale, until it terminates in the eighth degree above that radi- 
cal place. This interval is employed for interrogative expres- 






THE RISING OCTAVE. 253 

sion ; and for surprise, astonishment, and admiration, when 
they imply some slight degree of doubt or inquiry. It is 
further used, for the emphatic distinction of words. Nor is it 
limited to phrases, having the common grammatical forma 
of a question ; for even declaratory sentences, are made inter- 
rogative by the use of this interval. 

Although the pitch in interrogation, and emphasis, may 
sometimes rise both concretely and discretely, above the octave 
of the natural voice, and even into the falsette^ still the octave 
is the widest interval of the speaking scale, technically regarded 
in this work. It expresses therefore the most forcible degree 
of interrogation, and of emphasis ; and is the passionative into- 
nation for questions accompanied with sneer, comtempt, mirth, 
raillery, and the temper or triumph of peevish or indignant 
argument. 

From the time required in drawing out the concrete interval 
of an octave, this form of interrogation can be executed con- 
spicuously, only on a syllable of extended quantity. How r then 
can the interrogative expression be given to a short and immu- 
table syllable ? The means for effecting this, will be described 
hereafter, with particular reference to interrogative sentences. 
It may be here transiently illustrated by the following notation : 



^^± 



In this diagram, after the first concrete rise of an octave, on 
along syllable j a discrete change or skip is made from the 
line of its radical, to a line along the hight of its vanish. Now 
immutable syllables, in an interrogative sentence, are trans- 
ferred by tins discrete or radical change, to a line of pitch at 
the summit of the concrete interrogative interval : and thus 
discretely produce the expressive effect of that interval, though 
less remarkably than the indefinite syllables which pass through 
the same extent of the scale by the concrete rise. As there 



254 THE RISING OCTAVE. 

are more short and unaccented than long and accented syllables 
in discourse, the radical change here described contributes 
largely to the character of an interrogative intonation. The 
diagram shows, that after the radical pitch of a short quantity 
has assumed the summit-line of the octave, it proceeds in the 
diatonic melody on that line, until the occurrence of an indefi- 
nite syllable j when the radical pitch descends, to form a new 
concrete rise of the octave. Thus it appears -> the rule of into- 
nation, laid down when speaking of the diatonic melody of 
simple narration, does not apply to the melody of interrogative 
sentences ; for these employ a more extended concrete interval, 
and a wider discrete transition in their changes of radical pitch. 
When an octave is used for the purpose of emphasis, the voice, 
after its concrete rise on the emphatic word, immediately de- 
scends to the original line of radical pitch, as in the following 
notation. 



-4-JC-s$Z&L$—i$- &SL-4-JC 



But this subject of emphasis will be considered particularly, 
hereafter. 

The concrete rising octave and its radical change being em- 
ployed for very earnest interrogation, and for a high degree of 
expressive emphasis j are of less frequent occurrence in speech, 
than the following intervals of the fifth and the third. 



THE RISING FIFTH. 255 

SECTION XV. 

Of the Interval of the Rising Fifth. 

The rising radical and vanishing Fifth, like that of the 
octave, is interrogative; and emphatically expresses wonder, 
admiration, and congenial states of mind, when they em- 
brace a slight degree of inquiry or doubt. It has however, 
less of the smart inquisitiveness of this last interval ; is the 
most common form of interrogative intonation ; and without 
having the piercing force of the octave, may be equally ener- 
getic, and is always more dignified in its expression. The 
explanatory remarks in the last section, on the subject of the 
change of radical pitch in interrogation and emphasis, apply to 
the like uses of the fifth. That is, in interrogative sentences, 
after the voice, in adapting itself to short quantities, has made 
a discrete change by radical pitch through the interval of a 
fifth, the succeeding melody continues at its elevation, till again 
brought down for the purpose of a new concrete rise. And in 
like manner, after the use of the fifth for emphatic distinction 
on a single word, the pitch immediately returns to the original 
line of the current melody. 

From the preceding account of the intonation of the octave 
and of the fifth, we learn that their effects are cognizable under 
two different forms 3 the Concrete rise, and the Radical change; 
that the octave is impressed more remarkably on the ear ; and 
that the distinction between the interrogative, and the emphatic 
use of these intervals, consists generally in the difference of the 
number of syllables, to which they are respectively applied. 

It was said; the intonation of the octave, either by concrete 
or by radical pitch, is rarely employed; since a rise of eight de- 
grees above the ordinary line of utterance carries most speakers 
into the falsette. And even with those in whom the rise might 
not exceed the natural voice j the sudden ascent of radical 



256 THE RISING THIED. 

pitch would in some cases be ludicrous, from its contrast with 
the current melody ; would be liable to break into the falsette, 
if varied at its higher pitch ; or would be beyond the limit of 
the speaker's skilful execution. These objections do not apply 
to an occasional skip of radical pitch through the ascent of the 
fifth ; the variation being less striking in contrast ; and the 
interval of a fifth above the current melody, being generally 
within the range of the natural voice. 

Besides the above described uses of the octave and fifth, some 
canting forms of exclamation, and other familiar voices in 
common life, are made on these intervals. They require no 
further notice. 



SECTION XVI. 

Of the Interval of the Rising Third. 

The rising Third, in both its concrete and discrete forms, 
like the two last named intervals, is used for interrogative ex- 
pression, and for emphasis. But its degree in both these cases 
is less than that of the fifth. It is the sign of interrogation in 
its most moderate form ; and conveys none of those states of 
mind which, jointly with the question, were allotted to those 
other movements. 

Besides the exceptions to the rule of the plain diatonic 
melody, by an occasional use of the octave and fifth, it must 
now be added, that the general current of the tone is further 
varied, by the introduction of the concrete third, and its radical 
change. It occurs more frequently than the two former ; for, 
although more rarely than the fifth, as an interrogative, it is a 



THE RISING THIRD. 257 

common form of moderate emphatic intonation. In describing 
the phrases of melody, it was said, the rising tritone or upward 
succession of three radicals on as many syllables, is occasionally 
employed. On the scale, three radical places contain the inter- 
val- ef a third ; it is therefore the space or interval occupied by 
the constituents of a tritone, rejecting the vanish of the last, 
that makes the proper rising concrete third : yet this concrete 
as regards interrogative effect, is more impressive than the dis- 
crete rise of the successive radicals of the tritone ; for if the 
•words, CrO you there* in grammar, equally a command and a 
question > be uttered in the phrase of the rising tritone, with a 
downward vanish on each of its syllables, it will have the char- 
acter of an imperative sentence. Should the first word rise 
concretely a third, that is through the space embraced by the 
radicals of the tritone, and the last two be continued in their 
proper rising succession 3 the effect will be interrogative, even 
if the last two should bear the downward vanish. The same 
will be the effect when the second word has the concrete, and 
the last the radical change ; or, when the first and second have 
the common diatonic melody, and the last alone, the concrete 
rise; showing the marked difference in effect between the con- 
crete rise of a third, and a rise through three proximate radicals 
of the same extent. 

There is a form of replication in common speech especially 
used by the Scots, consisting of a repetition of the affirmative 
yes or aye, in the rising third ; and while the Avords seem to 
pay the courtesy of assent, the interrogative character of the 
intonation still insinuates the hesitation of doubt or surprise. 
Should the interrogative assent, implied by these words be of 
unusual en< rgy, the expression will assume the form of the 
fifth, or octave. 

When tin- reader has acquired the prefatory knowledge, 
necessary for the full comprehension of the subject of Empha- 
sis ; it will be definitely explained, in what manner, and en 
what occasions the octave, fifth, and third, are employed in 
this important function <>f* correct and impressive speech. But 
as the emphasis given to prominent words of concessive, con- 



258 THE RISING THIRD. 

ditional, and hypothetical sentences, carries with it, the latent 
character of an interrogatory, its application may properly he 
illustrated here. The following examples of conditionality and 
concession call for one of the wider rising intervals, on the 
words marked in italics : 

Then when I am thy captive talk of chains, 
Proud limitary Cherub ! but ere then, 
Far heavier load thyself expect to feel 
From my prevailing arm, though Heaven's king 
Ride on thy wings. 

So in the hypothesis of the following sentence : 

If I must contend, said he, 
Best with the best, the sender, not the sent. 

And the same with the exceptive phrase marked in these lines : 

The undaunted fiend what this might be, admired ; 
Admired, not fear'd. God and his Son except, 
Created thing naught valued he, nor shunned. 

It is unnecessary to say, which of the wider intervals is to 
be set respectively, on the strong words of these examples. 
The citations were made, to show that the rising third, fifth, 
or octave, may be used on the emphatic syllables of such 
sentences. 

The interval of the minor third, as we learned in the first 
section, consists of one tone and a half. It has a plaintive 
expression, but is not, as far as I have observed, employed in 
speech for any of those purposes of interrogation, conditionality, 
or concession, which are here ascribed to the major third. 

It may perhaps be useful in this place, for the reader to take 
a retrospect over the subject of melody, as it has thus far been 
described ; and to look upon it as consisting of the diatonic 
phrases formerly enumerated -> varied for the purposes of inter- 
rogation, and of emphasis, by the occasional introduction of the 
wider rising intervals of the octave, fifth, and third. In speak- 
ing of the melody of simple narrative, the radical changes of 
that style were reduced to seven elementary phrases. It may 
be thought j the further use of these wider intervals, in the 



INTONATION OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 

transitions of radical jiiteh, justifies an additional nomencla- 
ture, for the phrases employed in expression. It does; and 
the Phrases of the Eighth, the Fifth, and the Third, when the 
transition is made by radical skip, either in an upward or 
downward direction, are the terms for designating, if necessary, 
these new forms of melodial progression in speech. 



SECTIOX XYII. 
Of the Intonation of Interrogative Sentences. 

HAYING assigned an interrogative expression to the rising 
octave, fifth, and third, I defer for a moment, the history of 
the remaining forms of pitch, to describe the manner of employ- 
ing those intervals in the course of an interrogative sentence; 
and thereby to learn, how they are related both to its current 
melody, and to its cadence. 

With a view to exhibit the striking effect of the interrogative 
intervals, let us take the following declaratory or assertive 
st-nr. iice, as contradistinguished from the grammatical con- 
structions that generally indicate a question : 

Give Brutus a statue with his ancestors. 

This sentence denote- an intention to honor the patriot; 

is imperative in its purpose; and this purpose is ex; 

by a downward movement en every syllable. Bat if* tie- \er- 

plebeian should the next moment have a new light of 

discernment or caprice, lie might affect to refuse the honorary 



260 THE INTONATION 

tribute, by repeating the very words of the decree, with the 
sneering intonation of a question : 

Give Brutus a statue with his ancestors? 

The difference of expression in these two instances would be 
perceptible to every hearer : nor could the altered intention of 
the speaker, in the last case be mistaken. The ironical charac- 
ter or effect of the line when thus read, proceeds from each of 
its syllables having the rising interval of a fifth, or octave, or 
the inverted waves of these intervals, according to the energy 
of the sneer ; and it shows the power of that rise, in changing 
an imperative into an interrogative sentence. In this way 
only, by the concrete rise or the radical skip of a fifth or octave, 
or their inverted wave, on every syllable, will the question be 
fully expressed ; for should the movement be employed upon 
every word except the last, and should this be uttered with the 
diatonic triad, the interrogation will be lost. If the interroga- 
tive interval be given only to the last word, it will in some 
degree, denote an inquiry ; but much less forcibly than when 
the intonation is applied to every syllable. Besides illustrating 
the interrogative intonation, the preceding example likewise 
shows the effect of the wider intervals, when compared with 
that of the simple concrete of the tone or second, in a diatonic 
melody. The .manner of applying these wider intervals, for 
interrogation, will be presently described. 

Before we enter on this subject, the purposes of elementary 
instruction require some notice of the varied extent of the 
interrogative expression ; since some sentences demand its em- 
ployment on every syllable, while others are fully significa- 
tive of the question by its partial application. To be more 
definite : 

By Thorough Interrogative Expression, I meanj a use of the 
intended interval on every syllable of the sentence. 

By Partial Interrogative Expression^ a use of the interval 
on one, or on a few syllables ; others, particularly those at the 
close, having the melody of plain declarative discourse. For 
brevity, and for substitutive terms, these distinctions may be 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 201 

called, the thorough and the partial interrogation, or intona- 
tion, or expression. 

The proper reading of the questions contained in the follow- 
ing examples, may illustrate the meaning of the above named 
divisions. When Clarence enters guarded, at the end of the 
opening soliloquy of King Richard III, Gloster thus ad- 
dresses him 3 

Brother, good day ! what means this armed guard 
That waits upon your Grace ? 

Here the interrogative intonation is heard only on the clause, 
what means this armed guard; the rest of the sentence has 
both the current and cadence of the diatonic melody. 

"When the Queen, in the third scene of the first act, says j 

By Heaven, I will acquaint his Majesty 

Of those gross taunts I often have endured: 

Gloster retorts j 

Threat you me with telling of the King ? 

This proud and angry question must bear the interrogative 
intonation throughout its current, with the rising interval at 
the close, or it will not have the required expression. 

As the characteristic intonation in each of these questions 
cannot be interchangeably transferred, and as every question 
makes a thorough, or a restricted use of the interrogative inter- 
val j it would seem, there must be some instinctive principles to 
direct a good reader, in designating the places and the limits 
of its application. I propose in the present section to treat of 
interrogative sentences ; and to set forth some of the principles 
that appear to govern their intonation. 

To -rate and arrange clearly, the causes that seem to direct 
the Thorough and the Partial use of interrogative expression : 
we must consider both the Grammatical Structure of the ques- 
tion, and the state of Mind, or Purpose which it conveys. 

- are employed interrogatively, under various gram- 
matical forms. 



262 THE INTONATION 

First. They are constructed assertively, but are made inter- 
rogative by Intonation. 

You say, a People is only Sovereign, when freed from 
the restraints of Morals and Law ? 

Let us call these > Assertive or Declaratory questions. They 
sometimes have an ironical turn, for their intonation ' speaks 
otherwise than what the words declare.' 

Second. They are formed by reversing the declaratory posi- 
tion of the nominative, with regard to the verb and its auxiliary. 

Can a Sovereign People exist without Morals and Law ? 

Let these be called common questions. 

Third. By joining a pronoun to the common question. 

What Morals and Law can control its Sovereign Will ? 

These j we call Pronominal. 

Fourth. By joining an adverb to the common question. 

Where shall this question be determined ? 

These j Adverbial. 

Fifth. By joining a negative severally to the common, the 
pronominal, and the adverbial. 

Have not the United States of America begun the experiment ? 

These j Negative questions. 

Of the state of Mind or Purpose, both thoughtive and pas- 
sionative, there are many varieties, in a question. These will 
be illustrated as w T e proceed. 

First. A question may be made with an uncertainty, or with 
an entire ignorance in the interrogator on the subject of the 
question. This is a question of Real inquiry. 

Second. The interrogator may from collateral circumstances, 
either intimated or declared, have some knowledge, or a reser- 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 263 

ration of belief, on what is verbally the point of the question. 
Call this a question of Belief. Both these questions may be 
made in cither the second, third, or fourth grammatical forms. 

Third. But a question with the negative construction, is made 
as a demand for an according answer ; and when furnished with 
collateral grounds of belief, is sometimes put with the confi- 
dence of a triumphant assertion. "We may call this the Trium- 
phant inquiry. 

Fourth. Questions may be severally addressed with an 
Earnest or a Moderate temper, with Astonishment, and Exulta- 
tion. In short, as curious, and unjust ignorance is always sub- 
ject to the excited sway of self-will ; questions are found with 
every kind and force of passion. 

Fifth. In connection with claims to truth and justice, a ques- 
tion is sometimes an appeal to the candor of an opponent, or to 
the favor of an audience. This is an Appealing question. 
To this may be added the Conclusive, the Exclamatory, and 
the Imperative. As all these require a downward intonation, 
they will be described under the section, on Exclamatory 
sentences. 

Questions vary in extent, from the fulness of the common 
sentence, to the brevity of a word or monosyllable ; as shown 
in the last section on the interrogative use of even the affirma- 
tive, yea. A similar question maybe made of no : for notwith- 
standing this declaratory negative is in verbal meaning, always 
the same, yet the rising intonation, by changing that negative 
to a question, overrules that meaning or throws it into doubt. 

Upon the subject of intonation, in the various Grammatical 
forms <>f questions above mentioned, I here offer some general 
rules; or furnish approximations towards them, for the assist- 
ance of future research. 

It may be laid down as a rule, almost without exception, that 
where an interrogative sentence has the Assertive construction, 
it requires the Thorough expression. In addition to an example 
of this case given in a, preceding page, let us take an instance 
from Coriolamis, where the same words are used as a declara- 



264 THE INTONATION 

tory, and as an interrogative phrase. In the fifth scene of the 
fourth act, the servant of Aufidius says to Coriolanusj 





Where dwellest thou ? 


Cor. 


Under the canopy. 


Ser. 


Under the canopy? 


Cor. 


Ay. 


Ser. 


Where's that? 


Cor. 


In the city of kites and crows. 


Ser. 


In the city of kites and crows? 



The replications here set in italics should be read with an 
interrogative interval on every syllable ; and the reason seems 
to be this. All assertive sentences when put as questions are 
elliptical ; since they imply and should properly include some 
grammatical phrase of interrogation. Thus the speaker here 
means, either with inquisitive doubt as to the words 3 did you 
say, under the canopy ? or with real inquiry as to the place 2 
where is, under the canopy ? And so of the other instance. 
But the grammatical phrase of the question being omitted, it is 
necessary to supply the defect of the ellipsis, by the use of a 
thorough interrogative intonation. For when the interrogative 
interval is applied exclusively to one word or syllable except 
the last, it constitutes a declaration, with an intonated emphasis 
on the word so marked. When set on many syllables, or on 
all except one, it does produce a degree of interrogation, yet 
quite unsatisfactory to the demands of sense, and of the ear. 
Should the interrogative expression be made on the last, while 
the other words are in the diatonic melody, the reading will 
fall short of the meaning of the phrase, if it would not indeed, 
misrepresent it ; since the unexpected rise at the close, instead 
of the consistent termination by the diatonic cadence, would 
produce an anomaly of utterance irreducible, by me at least, to 
any definite character of expression. 

A declarative question is then an elliptical sentence, from 
which the grammatical phrase having been omitted, the question 
must be signified by an interrogative intonation on every word. 
There are however, some declaratory sentences, which affirm 
by the word, yet question with such a slight insinuation of 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 265 

doubt, that they call for only the partial intonation ; as in the 
following of Hamlet to the Player : 

You could, for a need, study a speech of some dozen or 
sixteen lines, which I would set down and insert in 't ? 

Here the words are declaratory ; and even affirm the power 
of the subject ; yet with moderately rising intervals on the 
phrase, you could for a need, the declarative idea is over- 
ruled by the prevailing influence of this intonated question. 
Such cases deserve a name for themselves, and are not to be 
classed with the above proper declarative questions, which are 
purely thorough interrogatives. 

In a sentence constructed by the nominative placed after the 
verb, or between the verb and auxiliary, forming w T hat we call 
a Common question j either the Partial or the Thorough interro- 
gative is employed. I need not illustrate the varieties of this 
case ; the reader can readily recur to examples under it, in 
wlii tli the intonation must be determined by the circumstances 
of the question, the place or places of the emphasis, and the 
form of the sentence, as it may be short and simple, or ex- 
tended and complex. 

A sentence constructed w r ith the interrogative pronouns or 
adverbs, constituting what we called Pronominal and Adverbial 
questions^ and embracing none of those cases which require 
the Thorough expression, commonly appears under the Partial 
torn] ; as in the following examples : 

Who hath descried the number of the traitors ? 
How came these thiugs to pass ? 
What sum owes he the Jew? 

These lines do not severally require a thorough expression ; 
for the question is here sufficiently marked, wdien the interro- 
gative intervals are applied on portions only of the sentence, 
particularly on its emphatic words. The reason of the rule of 
partial application may be this. In adverbial and pronominal 
constructions, there is no question" about the existence or the 
18 



266 THE INTONATION 

agency of the subject of inquiry ; and thus its part in the sen- 
tence does not call for an interrogative expression. The 
uncertainty is in the relation of that existence, to person, time, 
place, manner, number, and degree ; and on these only, the 
interrogative intervals are required. Thus in the first example 
the existence of the traitors is admitted ; the question referring 
only to their number, and to the person who had seen them. 
In the second, the existence of the things, and their agency in 
the event, is admitted ; the question beingj in what manner, or 
how they came to pass. The third admits the debt ; and ques- 
tions only its amount. Some of the exceptions to the generality 
of this rule will be mentioned, in speaking of the varying state of 
mind or purpose in an interrogative phrase, and of its final 
emphatic syllable. 

Common, pronominal, and adverbial questions are made 
directly to the point of inquiry, or indirectly by a negative, to 
its opposite ; as in the following common question 3 Will 
he — come? And in the negative 3 Will he — not come? The 
dash being'merely to mark the difference to the eye. Here the 
first question is directly to the point of his coming. The 
second is indirect, or to the point of his not coming. The con- 
dition is therefore not the same in the two cases. One is a 
real inquiry, made in ignorance whether or not, he will come ; 
and without hope or fear that he may. The other is prompted 
by the assumed idea and the hope, that he will come ; and 
thereupon, anxiously regarding, and fearing the negative side 
of the condition only, asks, if this negative is the fact. Is it — 
that he will not come ? or by ellipsis, and by transposition, 
Will he — not come ? 

If we take adverbial and pronominal questions 3 the principle 
of an assumed belief, under their negative form, will be perhaps 
more apparent. What did he — not dare? How did he — not 
deceive ? Who is — not covetous ? These cases clearly indi- 
cate on the part of the interrogator, the idea that the subjects 
of the first two did severally dare, and deceive in all things ; 
and in the last, that all men are covetous. Should these ques- 
tions be made directly to their interrogative points, as 3 What 






OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 267 

did he dare? their several real inquiries would call for a 
thorough interrogation ; but as negatives, and made indirectly 
to these points, they may take the partial expression, or even 
the downward interval and the direct wave. 

The intonation of negative questions, has the Thorough or 
Partial expression, according to the character and purpose of 
the sentence. This will be illustrated hereafter : and it will be 
shown, that the negative question sometimes carries the assumed 
idea to the verge of a positive belief. 

When a sentence, besides the Point of the question, has addi- 
tional members or clauses which contain an address to a person, 
or assertions, or expletives, or reference to causes j the expres- 
sion assumes the partial form ; as in the following instances : 

Of address : 

Why with some little train, my lord of Buckingham ? 
Of assertion : 

Why did you laugh then, when I said, Man delights not me ? 

Of expletive : 

What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, 
That he should weep for her? 

Of cause : 

What of his heart perceive you in his face, 
By any likelihood he show'd to day ? 

The reason of the rule seems to be, that the additional 
clauses, though modifying the leading point of the question, 
yet do not, in their separable membership, include an interro- 
gation ; which the portion of the sentence marked in italics, 
and here called the point of the question, does grammatically 
convey. 

When questions of a moderate temper are connected by con- 
junctions, or follow in series, without this connection j it is 
not necessary that each question should severally have the 
extent of interrogative expression, required in its solitary use. 



268 THE INTONATION 

Give me thy hand. Thus high, by thy advice, 
And thy assistance, is king Richard seated : 
But shall we wear these glories for a day ? 
Or shall they last, and we rejoice in them ? 



Are you call'd forth from out a world of men, 
To slay the innocent ? What is my offence ? 
Where is the evidence that doth accuse me ? 
What lawful quest have given their verdict up 
Unto the frowning judge ? or who pronounced 
The bitter sentence of poor Clarence's death ? 

Should this rule not be contravened by conditions requiring 
universally, the thorough expression 3 the question in such 
instances as the above, is sometimes sufficiently marked, if each 
♦of the several members of the series has an interrogative 
interval only on a single word ; and this reduces the case, in 
point of expression, to an ordinary sentence, having an em- 
phatic word, so marked by the given interval. Perhaps the 
reason of the rule is, that the mind or ear of the auditor being, 
so to speak, in the humor of the question, the interrogation is 
sufficiently indicated by the grammatical structure. 

With regard to the State of mind, or Purpose of a question, 
some notable circumstances govern the use of intonation. 

If a question is prompted by the ignorance or uncertainty of 
the speaker, and thus contains a Real, and often an earnest 
inquiry, it generally bears the thorough expression ; which 
must consequently in many instances, overrule the partial into- 
nation otherwise appropriate to pronominal, adverbial, and 
common questions ; to questions in conjunction, and in series ; 
and should they embrace surprise, even to those of negative 
construction ; as in the following examples, where the lines in 
italics, including questions of real inquiry 3 the last being 
prompted by surprise 3 call for the thorough interrogation. 

Hamlet. Dost thou hear me, old friend ? 

Can you play the murder of Gonzago ? 






Hamlet. Have you a daughter? 
Polonim. I have, my lord. 



OF INTERROGATIVE SEXTEXCES. 269 

Prospero. Thy father was the Duke of Milan, and 

A Prince of power. 
Miranda. Sir, are not you my father? 

Although in the stated form of this rule, only a general effect 
is ascribed to it, yet when the question has much earnestness, 
its bearing is universal. 

Those questions, in which the interrogator intimates some 
knowledge on the subject of his inquiry, and which were termed 
questions of Belief, call for only the partial intonation. Under 
this head, even some declarative questions contain so much of 
an absolute assertion, that they require the slightest degree of 
interrogative expression ; as in the following, of Hamlet to 
Polonius : 

My lord, you play'd once in the University, you say ? 

As there is some doubt in this sentence, it is properly marked 
as a question ; yet the collateral phrase, you say, refers to an 
event known before to the interrogator ; the emphatic purpose, 
therefore, requires an interrogation only on the words in italics. 

Of the Negative question, which under its assumed belief, 
seems to anticipate, or at least to hope for, an according answer : 
Ave find an illustration in Shylock's noted parallel between the 
Jew and the Christian, with his earnest resolve upon revenge. 

He hath disgraced me, and hindered me of half a million ; laughed at m} r 
losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled 
my friends, heated mine enemies ; and what's his reason ? I am a Jew : Hath 
not a Jew eyes ? Hath not a Jew hands ? Organs? Dimensions? Senses? Affec- 
tions ? Passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, Subject 
to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the 
same winter and summer, as a Christian is ? If you prick us, do we not bleed ? 
If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you 
wrong us, shall we not revenge ? If we are like you in the rest, we will resem- 
ble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. 
If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian exam- 
ple? Why revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute; and it shall go 
hard, but I will better the instruction. 

Eere the questions begin with \ What's //As- reason ? Now as 
the answer is made by the inquirer himself, the question is 



270 THE INTONATION 

rather one of "belief, or of appeal, than a real inquiry ; and is to 
be made by rising intervals, on the first three syllables, with a 
downward interval on son ; thus constituting a partial interro- 
gation. The answer is a full sentence, and serves to illustrate 
the expression of the triad of the cadence. This triad is always 
set at a full period. When therefore Shylock, to his own ques- 
tion responds, and assigns the reason, I am a Jew* giving a 
downward interval to _Z, and the falling triad of the cadence 
to the three remaining syllables 3 he joins to the close of the 
sense by words, a positive closing intonation, which emphati- 
cally declares, this alone to be the reason, and implies by 
the close, that no more is to be said : thus affording a beau- 
tiful instance both of the grammatical, and the intonated effect 
of the cadence. Add to this, the contrasted variety of the 
rising intervals on the question, and the downward intervals on 
the answer : much preferable I would say, for its truth, dignity, 
and force, to the answer when made by the sneering intonation 
of rising intervals or of waves, sometimes applied to it. The 
next two questions, Hath not a Jew eyes ? Hath not a Jew 
hands ? are similar in argumentative meaning, and should have 
a like intonation. They are both negative : and having in a 
preceding page given some examples, showing that the negative 
question includes in a greater or less degree the mental condi- 
tion of belief j I here offer a further explanation of the manner 
in which that belief is grammatically conveyed. 

Let us take the following as a Common question of Real in- 
quiry ; Hatha Jew eyes ? Then the negative proposition j A 
Jew hath not eyes. If we join a question to the negative dec- 
laration, we have this form of questioning a negative : Is it so ? 
(that) a Jew hath not eyes. Which, with an identical meaning, 
may be thus traced through its various constructions. Is it 
true? — a Jew hath not eyes: or 3 is it true of a Jew? — 
he hath not eyes: or j a Jew, hath he not eyes? And from 
this, rejecting the pronoun and putting the noun in its place, 
we have : Hath not a Jew eyes ? which is the most simple form 
of questioning a negative. Now to doubt or question a nega- 
tive, is in a certain degree, to intimate an affirmative. Thus 



OF INTERROGATIVE SEXTEXCES. 271 

to question his not Laving eyes, at least carries with it, the 
assumed idea that he has. Hence negative questions may be 
considered as questions of Belief, under the form of an appeal. 
If this view is correct, Shylock does not look to Salanio his 
interlocutor, for an answer ; but implies in the negative appeal- 
in- - '[iiestion, his conviction, that the same physical and moral 
constitution in the Jew, and in the Christian, entitles each 
equally to the rights of truth and justice. Under this view, 
the question put by Shylock, though one of belief, and appeal, 
has its claims to the partial intonation, overruled by its vehe- 
mence ; and therefore demands the thorough interrogative 
expression. I do not say, that as an appeal taken with the 
negative construction, the two questions might not be given 
with the downward intonation ; or at least with a direct wave 
on JetVy in the first, and a downward concrete on hands in the 
second. Yet to my ear, the keenness of the thorough interro- 
gation is more appropriate to the energy of the occasion. 

Next follow in succession, five words, each being an ellip- 
tical declaratory question ; and they are here so marked ; 
having dropped the grammatical phrase, Hath not a Jew ? 
These questions then, severally call for the rising interrogative 
interval, on each of their syllables. Let there be no fear of 
monotony in this case; the variety of elemental sound, and of 
meaning in the words, enable the ear to bear the repeated 
identity of a truthful intonation. We next have a sentence 
beginning at fed, consisting of five clauses. This is still a 
declaratory question : but the ellipsis that makes it so, does not 
avoid a solecism; for the interrogative verb whether expressed 
or understood must be changed, and the question if complete 
should be, not j Hath not, butj Is not a Jew fed with the same 
food, as a Christian is? Under its declaratory form in the 
text, its supposed negative embraces, like the preceding ques- 
tions, a degree of" belief and appeal. But the vehemence has 
BOmewhal subsided, and the intonation may therefore be par- 
tial: particularly at the end, where the diatonic cadence 
may he applied. The next four clauses arc similar: and 
each is made-up of a condition, and of a negative question. 



272 THE INTONATION 

If you prick us, do we not bleed ? This union of the condi- 
tion and the negative, puts the question of belief and of appeal 
in so strong a light, that its meaning takes the lead, in the into- 
nation of the several questions. All the interrogative phrases 
should therefore have the downward intervals ; for these, we 
shall learn hereafter, form the intonation of appealing ques- 
tions ; while the conditional phrases should have the partial, or 
the thorough expression, as the meaning, or as variety may 
require. The next two clauses are alike in structure, and 
contain, severally, a condition, together with a pronominal 
question ; If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility ? 
Here the interrogator returning his own answer, the question 
may be taken as an appeal, and thus receive the downward 
intonation. But as the question conveys a slight degree of 
sneer, the emphatic syllable of humility may receive a wider 
unequal direct wave of the fifth, which we shall learn hereafter 
is its proper vocal sign : while at the same time, the rise of the 
first constituent of this wave, forms a striking and elegant con- 
trast to the emphatic downward intonation of the answer 3 
Revenge. The other answer 3 why revenge, should have the 
triad of the cadence, on its three syllables, forcibly declared by 
its downward vanishes ; meaning, as it would seem 3 there is an 
end of the subject, let no more be said. For the higher 
Elocution, this argument of Shylock has great strength and 
beauty. The vehemence with which the rising intonation begins, 
moderates as it proceeds ; till it gradually declines to the 
downward, but still impressive intonation of an appeal. If the 
several questions seem to have too close a succession of the 
same rising intervals ; let it be remembered, this is not mono- 
tony. It is the truth of intonation : and in the purposes of an 
instinctively expressive use of the voice, truth and fitness can 
never be monotonous to a scientific and cultivated ear. 

For a further illustration of the negative interrogatory, under 
that degree of belief called the triumphant question 3 I give here 
an example, showing at the same time, the difference between 
the negative and the common form. 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 2T8 

When St. Paul, before the Judgment Seat, asks, in a com- 
mon question 3 King Agrippa, believest thou the Prophets? 
he addresses a real inquiry, and cannot, therefore, with propri- 
ety, return the answer himself. And unless Agrippa had 
remained silent after the question, of which we are not informed, 
we see no reason why Paul should so confidently affirm the 
belief of Agrippa : for a hesitating or evasive answer might 
have been taken as a collateral ground of belief, on the part of 
the interrogator. Paul's personal narrative, and his very 
reasonably ascribing to Agrippa. a knowledge of Jewish affairs, 
even if grounds at all, are not implied in his real inquiry. 
Referring to the principle of assumed belief, that directs a neg- 
ative question, let us apply it to a like construction here. 
King Agrippa, believest thou not the Prophets ? or, Dost thou 
not King Agrippa, believe the Prophets ? For the meaning in 
both cases is identical : since they each alike question a nega- 
tive. That is. they both ask Agrippa. if he does not believe, 
or if he disbelieves the Prophets. And, if I am not misled 
both in my analysis, and inference: to doubt or question a dis- 
belief, is, to a certain degree, to suppose a belief. Let then 
the phrase of real inquiry, as the case is recorded, be made 
negative ; and upon this doubt or question of Agrippa's disbe- 
Paul, in the confirming zeal of his argument, might, after 
his appealing interrogative, fairly make his conclusive declara- 
tion. Dost thou not, King Agrippa, believe the Prophets? I 
know that thou believest. 

For the intonation of this altered form of the question, apply 
interrogative intervals to the words ; Dost thou not King 
Agrippa : making the first three strongly and deliberately em- 
phatic, witli a slight pause after Agrippa : then reduce the 
octave or fifth, whichever may be used on the sentenee, down 
to a third on the syllable grip, and to a second on pa : and 
terminate the question, by positive falling intervals on: believe 
• Prophets. Give an emphatic downward intonation to the 
declaration 3 I know that thou believest j with an exulting tre- 
mor on know; and the question, by the implied belief of its 



274 THE INTONATION 

negative structure, will be a forcible figure of speech, and a 
striking example of the triumphant inquiry.* 

There is, in the Eleventh chapter of the Second Corinthians, 
a series of questions and answers, by St. Paul ; each somewhat 
resembling in structure that addressed to Agrippa, but far 
more irregular. Of these however I take one only, as an 
example of the other four. 

Are they Hebrews ? So am I. 

Here, in addition to the unsatisfactory use of the common 
question of real inquiry, in place of a negative, of implied 
belief j and to the incongruity between the number and person, 
of Hebrews and I ; the peculiar construction, in thus making 
the interrogator the respondent, commits a violent solecism both 
in logic and grammar : for a question cannot be a premis to 

* We are told in the 'Acts of the Apostles,' that Paul addressed Agrippa, in 
•what we have called a common question of Real inquiry. But Paul, from his 
own account of his persecuting the Christians^ was a choleric, and a violent 
man : and was besides, an Enthusiast in the Platonic Philosophy ; that scholas- 
tic source of the fanatical delusions of the 'real presence of Spiritualism ;' and 
of political craft, in the prophecies of ' Manifest Destiny.' Urged and sustained 
by the overbearing energy, and the self-confidence of his character, he was 
necessarily fearless before his accusers, and eloquent in the conscious honesty, 
and declaration of his belief. In the fervor of that belief, he put his question, 
as if his own conviction had reached his judge. Now as I maintain, either 
nature or convention, has appointed the form of a Negative question, to express 
this hopeful reliance of the interrogator, on the yielding assent of the respon- 
dent. But this is not the form recorded in the case before us. If Paul's friends 
or foes in the crowd, reported the Address, we cannot be surprised at a mistake. 
If it was written out by Paul, or repeated by him to others, the language must 
then have wanted the purpose and ardor which directed the appropriate gram- 
mar of his impressive vocal question. We may then be allowed, with some 
probability, to doubt that the question was written down in the very words of 
the speaker. 

The philosophical critic must pardon the merely illustrating fancy of this 
Note. And if this, my pastime of commentary, should disturb the nervous 
Orthodoxy of those who do not like to be called 'Lovers of Wisdom;' they will 
please to observe, that the proposed emendation of St. Luke, who though a 
Physician, may not have been an Elocutionist, is suggested by a law of Nature 
herself who, among the countless, so called orthodoxies of men, has never yet 
found one in thorough likeness of her own. 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 2 , 5 

an unconditional conclusion. Hence 3 so (in like manner to 
what?) am I, has not the least connection with the foregoing 
question ; which affirms no existence as the antecedent to so. 
The purpose of speech is to represent, by sound and syntax, 
severally both thought and passion ; and no Art of Elocution, 
not ours at least, can by the modes of the voice, properly con- 
vey either sense or expression, upon the inconsistent clauses of 
this example. T\ T e may guess, that Paul meant to tell the 
Corinthians j he addressed them as a Hebrew; but he does not 
say so, by strict, nor even by clear elliptical, grammar. 

Are they Hebrews ? is a question of real inquiry ; and until 
answered in the affirmative, cannot have the least grammatical 
or logical correspondence with the declaration 3 so am I. "When 
the question is negative j Are they not Hebrews? it becomes 
one of belief; and so far as the declaration may be thereupon 
inferred, its relationship to that assertive interrogatory, if I 
may so call it, is somewhat clearer. Thus according to the 
meaning and power of a negative question 3 are they not He- 
brews? the interrogator figuratively assumes, that they uncon- 
ditionally are ; and therefore conclusively declares j so am I. 
Yet this strong negative appeal, with its assumed assent, even 
when assisted by emphatic force, and a thorough downward 
intonation j as in, Are they not Hebrews ? So am 1 3 has not a 
strictly grammatical nor logical construction. There is a chasm 
between the imperfect conclusion of a belief in the former, and 
the positive affirmation in the latter phrase. Nor can its awk- 
wardness be entirely avoided, and the assumed conviction be 
complete j without putting both phrases into the same form of 
negative interrogation. Are they not Hebrews? and, am not 
I a Hebrew ? or again, am I not one ? 

The extent of interrogative intonation appropriate to ques- 
tions put argumentatively, and to those embracing a confident 
appeal ; varies from a thorough application, through the degrees 
of its partial use, to the very opposite effect of the most 
positive declaratory sentence. But of the argumentative, and 
appealing interrogation, I shall speak, in a future section. 

V. ben a question is vehemently made, under any grammatical 



276 THE INTONATION 

structure, and with any number of such questions, either in 
conjunction or in series 3 the rule very generally assigns to the 
expression, the thorough extent. 

Show me what thou'lt do. 
Woo'tweep? woo't fight? woo't fast ? woo't tear thyself ? 
Woo't drink up Esil ? eat a crocodile ? 
I'll do't. Dost thou come here to whine ? 
To outface me with leaping in her grave ? 

The passionative state that directs the voice in these several 
questions, has an excess of vehemence, and its purpose is inter- 
rogative. The interrogation therefore, must be vehemently 
marked by its rising intervals on every word, or there will be 
no correspondence between the passionative state of mind, and 
the vocal expression. It may perhaps be said 3 this repetition 
of the same interval, would be monotonous. If so, the charge 
is made against Nature ; and it is always hopeful to defend her. 
Let him who would try it for variety -> give the several ques- 
tions, alternately with a rising and a falling octave or fifth ; 
and hear then, their meaning quite destroyed, by this see-saw 
of real monotony. Again, let him otherwise contrast these 
intervals, for some must rise 3 and try every succession that 
may seem to promise variety ; then we shall have, together with 
a striking oddity, a far worse monotony of affectation. After 
these trials, let him give each question with its proper rising 
interval ; and we can then say 3 if the passionative state is not 
as deeply impressed on us, as it is forcibly expressed by him. 
He is only telling the truth of utterance, with emphatic repeti- 
tion ; and we, if fit for sympathy, cannot perceive a monotony, 
which not being in his thought or passion, he does not vocally 
express. Yet see the elocution, in the Poet's mind and pen ! 
He put eight questions within these lines, and felt then, as we 
may therefore say now, that all should have the rising intona- 
tion. He paid this tribute to expression, in the first six. 
Then with a mind unconscious of monotony in truth 3 and only 
to give it variety, by another phrase with the downward inter- 
val, and its vehement assent, he felt, and passionatively wrote j 
I'll do it. 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 277 

Say, thou All-Observant, and All-Reflective power of Shak- 
speare ! do I not thus speak the truth j of thy discrimination, 
as thy All-Reaching language, so often speaks to me the ever- 
lasting truth, and truthful analogies of nature and of life ! 

But to return. Should a question be addressed in a moderate 
temper of inquiry, the speaker will generally affect the partial 
form of expression. When Hamlet says to Guildenstern j 

"Will you play upon this pipe? 

the composure of mind and the rank of the prince mingle in 
the question, the mild authority of a request, with the doubt of 
an inquiry ; and this is perhaps properly represented by the 
use of a moderate interrogative intonation on the first part of 
the sentence, with a subsequent reposing descent of the diatonic 
cadence. It would appear, the instrument is brought into the 
scene, and the question thereupon put, with a view to the con- 
sequent quibble ; and on this ground, perhaps, the word pipe 
might be regarded as emphatic. Still the emphasis may be 
made by stress or force, on the last constituent of the triad, as 
well as by a rising interrogative interval. 

When a question is asked with astonishment, surprise, indig- 
nation, scorn, and other similar states, it generally receives the 
thorough expression. Let us take an example from the scene, 
in the first act of Hamlet, between Hamlet, Horatio, and the 
two officers ; where, from the moment Horatio informs Hamlet 
of his having seen his father, there follows, on the part of the 
Prince, a succession of questions, with both the declaratory 
and interrogative construction, requiring with one or two 
exceptions, a marked use of the thorough expression. 

There are thirteen questions in this dialogue. In applying 
our principles of intonation to them, the Novelty of the matter 
in this Work, and the required peculiarity of its arrangement, 
make it necessary to anticipate some points of our subject, that 
will be fully explained hereafter. It is found by the experience 
of those who gain knowledge from books, that what is worth 
reading at all, should be read more than once ; different parts 
of a system being the best expositors of each other. The 



278 THE INTONATION 

Student of Nature is always, again and again, going over her 
self-explaining Book. 

After some words about the late King, our extract from the 
dialogue begins herej 

Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yester-night. 
Ham. Saw ? who ? 

There seems to be here, two separate questions. The First 
is elliptical ; either for the declaratory interrogative phrase you 
saw ? Or for the common question, did you see ? And refers 
solely to the fact of an apparition : since Hamlet's thought is, 
for the moment exclusively directed to the impossibility of the 
King, his father, having been seen. The Second is ungram- 
matically elliptical either for, saw whom ? or for, whom did 
you see ? And refers to the person of the apparition. By 
thus making two separate questions, we are enabled to give 
more force and variety to their intonated expression. They 
each express astonishment and inquiry, the former predomi- 
nating; and this, we shall learn hereafter, calls for a wide 
downward interval; while the question requires a wide rising 
interval. These different expressions in the first question are 
therefore connected and reconciled by the falling continued into 
the rising octave ; thus forming what we call the inverted wave. 
The astonished interrogation of this wave, is then to be applied 
to the first question saw ? The second question, who ? by an 
error in case, is elliptical for, Who did you see ? It is not how- 
ever, properly a declaratory word, requiring a rising interval ; 
since as an interrogative pronoun, it does even when alone, always 
convey the meaning of a condition or question. But the ques- 
tion has already been emphatically made on, saw f With a 
moderate pause after this word, the astonishment may therefore 
be expressed by an emphatic downward octave on who ; forming 
what will be described hereafter, as the Exclamatory question. 
In this way, the expression of these two words, while both 
forcible and true, is effected with more variety, than if the same 
intonation were used on each. 

Ilor. My lord, the King, your father. 
Ham. The King, my father? 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 270 

This being a declaratory question, under a state of astonish- 
ment, calls for an impressive thorough interrogation. This 
interrogative may be made, as in the last case, by the inverted 
wave of the octave on King ; and as the short quantity of the 
syllable fa, will not bear the prolongation of the wave, and 
perhaps, not even the simple rise of an emphatic octave, with- 
out deforming its pronunciation -> the interrogative expression 
might be effected, by taking fa, at the current level of the 
voice, and then rising with ther, by an upward skip of radical 
pitch, to the hight of an octave, as exemplified in the fourteenth 
section. 

Horatio having then detailed the circumstances of the Ghost's 
visitation, Hamlet asks 3 

But where was this ? 

"What was said, in illustrating the intonation of sentences 
constructed with the adverb and pronoun, applies here : for as 
the question emphatically regards the place 3 where must have 
either a simple interrogative rise of an octave, or fifth, or a 
union of these respective intervals, in the form of an inverted 
wave, while was this assumes the first duad form of the cadence. 

Mar. My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd. 
Ham. Did you not speak to it ? 

This, as the reader may now perceive, is a Negative Appeal- 
ing question. All therefore that was said formerly of the 
example j Hath not a Jew eyes, and of the other like cases, may 
be referred to, and applied here ; with the exception however, 
that the present question is less vehement, and therefore less 
confident in its belief and appeal, and in the hope of an accord- 
ing answer. The greater energy in the former case required 
the thorough expression; while here, the interrogative may 
he either thorough or partial, as the assumed mental state 
or purpose of Hamlet may direct. If however afl it appears 
to me. there is, in the idea that Horatio should, yet might 
not have spoken to it, some passing disposition to reproof 
on the part of Hamlet j the intonation should be partial, to 



280 THE INTONATION 

express the reproof, perhaps on the word not, by a positive 
downward interval. 

Hor. My lord I did; but answer made it none. 
Ham. 'Tis very strange. 

Hor. As I do live, my honored lord, 'tis true. 
Ham. Indeed, indeed sirs, but this troubles me. 
Hold you the watch, to night ? 

This is a question of real inquiry, which by our general rule, 
calls for the thorough intonation. Still there may be another 
reason for it here. Thinking men in their purposes, either good 
or bad 3 if indeed, that exalted agent real thinking ever stoops, 
as fictional thought often does, to an unworthy purpose 3 always 
have a reason for them. When therefore, Shakspeare makes 
the whole company at once, answer this question, we must sup- 
pose it done to show, the question is not addressed to any one, 
but to all. Consequently, the interrogative expression should 
be thrown over the whole sentence, with a slight emphasis on, 
to nig Jit ; the time being the unknown 3 while holding the watch, 
and the sentinels to be set, are the given quantities, so to speak, 
in the mind of Hamlet. 

All. We do, my lord. 
Ham. Arm'd, say you ? 

This is not strictly, a question of real inquiry. For Horatio 
having formerly described the king, ' arm'd at point, exactly, 
cap-a-pe,' Hamlet is aware of his having so appeared. Still, 
in cases where the mind is unprepared for a new impression, 
and hardly receives it 3 Hamlet recurs, by the phrase 3 say you, 
to the former report by Horatio, and asks for a confirmation of 
it. This, from the collateral inference, being then a question 
of belief, might seem to call for the partial intonation. Yet as 
the thought comes back to Hamlet, with some surprise ; as an 
earnestness is implied in the desire to have the former state- 
ment repeated ; and as there are only three words in the ques- 
tion, and those, important to the point, each should receive the 
interrogative expression. 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 281 

Hot. Arm'd, my lord. 
Ham. From top to toe ? 

This is a declaratory question, and requires the thorough 
interrogation. 

Hot. My lord, from head to foot. 
Ham. Then saw you not his face ? 

This is a negative question, with its assumed degree of be- 
lief ; yet as its temper is earnest ; as the last word is emphatic, 
and thus requires an interrogative interval, the whole question 
calls for the thorough expression. 

Hor. 0, yes, my lord ; he wore his beaver up. 
Ilam. What! Look'd he frowniDgly? 

I cannot at once decide, on the form of intonation, for the 
first word of this question : though inclined to take it for an 
exclamation, rather than an interrogative. In each case it 
must be considered an ellipsis; in the former, perhaps forj 
what a wonder ; in the latter for, what tvas his appearance t 
As a pronominal interrogatory, it requires a wide rising inter- 
val ; while the following phrase j looked he frowningly, being a 
question of real inquiry, with the thorough expression, we have 
unnecessarily, and with seeming levity of voice, two consecutive 
interrogations. In the other case, taking the pronoun as an 
elliptical exclamation, with a downward fifth or octave, and a 
subsequent pause, the gravity of this wider interval would con- 
trast agreeably with the thorough rising interrogation, and give 
greater dignity to the whole expression. 

Jlor. A countenance more in sorrow than in anger. 
Ham. Pale, or red ? 

This is a declaratory elliptical question, and should receive a 
thorough interrogative. But perhaps we may find an overruling 
reason why it should take the partial. These words make an 
emphatic contradistinction ; and as that contradistinction must 
be shown by intonation, we would give to pale, a rising interro- 
gative; and to red, a downward positive intonation. Were the 
19 



282 THE INTONATION 

quantity of this last word greater, it might receive, with more 
propriety, the direct wave ; its first or rising interval, moderat- 
ing by its interrogative effect, the positiveness of its downward 
termination. Yet even with the single intervals above proposed, 
the question is marked, and the words are contradistinguished, 
by an emphatic and varied intonation. This example forms 
one of the exceptions to the very general rule, that declarative 
questions should receive the thorough interrogative expression. 
Though it is to be remarked, that in this case the doubting 
disjunctive or, overrules, in a degree, its declaratory character. 

Hor. Nay, very pale. 

Ham. And fixed his eyes on you? 

This, if a question, is a declarative one ; and requires the 
interrogative intervals throughout. There seems nevertheless, 
to be an indication of belief in this sentence, which should make 
it an affirmative remark, requiring a downward intonation. If 
so, perhaps the question, as noted by the editor, is annulled, 
upon this collateral inference 3 that a ghost appearing to a 
person, would reasonably fix his eyes on him. 

Hor. Most constantly. 

Ham. I would I had been there. 

Hor. It would have much amazed you. 

Ham. Very like, very like. Staid it long ? 

The last three words, are here the question ; and containing 
a real inquiry, call for the thorough expression. 

Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred. 

Mar. Ber. Longer, longer. 

Hor. Not when I saw it. 

Ham. His beard was grizzl'd ? No ? 

Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life, a sable silvered. 

There seems to be some difficulty in this last question. If 
the phraseology were completed thus : His beard was grizzl'd, 
was it not ? the case would be quite clear. For, taking the first 
phrase under this form, as a declaratory question, it would 
receive a thorough interrogative intonation : while the second, 
being a proper grammatical question, with its rising intervals, 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 283 

and following the first, would have the propriety and force of 
an emphatic repetition of the question, under a negative and 
appealing form. But when, as in the dialogue, the construction 
of the last phrase is reduced by ellipsis, to the monosyllable no, 
and both the phrases are then made intonated questions, it 
renders in some degree, the elocution awkward, and the mean- 
ing obscure. Every edition of Skakspeare I have examined, 
makes each of these phrases, a separate interrogation. If they 
are so, the first is a declarative question, and therefore must 
have the rising interval on every word ; while No, being always 
declarative must have that meaning annulled by its rising 
interval. The question having however, been distinctly ex- 
pressed by the first phrase, an endeavor to enforce it by repe- 
tition, under this brief monosyllabic construction, would produce 
only an ineffectual kind of vocal tautophony. For a single 
interrogative interval on the word no, that in logic, and gram- 
mar never conveys a doubt, does not here, give the double im- 
pression of the question, which is effected, by a like interroga- 
tive intonation, on the above proposed and full grammatical 
question, tvas it not f If the reader will give a thorough ex- 
pression to these two different forms of the sentence 3 His beard 
was grizzl'd? no? andj His beard was grizzl'd? was it not? 
he will perceive in the latter 3 the inquiry is clearly enforced, 
by its repetition under the different form of a negative appeal ; 
while in the former, there is some verbal confusion and conse- 
quently an undetermined character in the elocution. For in this 
case it might seem, without due reflection, that Hamlet having 
first inquired whether the beard was grizzled, immediately anr 
swers his own question, by a declaration that it was not. But 
taking this single word according to the text, as a question, 
even a wide interrogative interval on no, has not the power to 
destroy entirely, the usual and strongly declarative meaning of 
this negative monosyllable. And this produces, a confusion, 
which the full grammatical question > was it not, would entirely 
obviate. 

There is another view to be taken of this example ; for Elo- 
cution is a current of divided, and sometimes diverging rills. 



284 THE INTONATION 

Thus the phrase, His beard was grizzl'd, may be taken as a 
positive affirmation by Hamlet, from a full recollection of its 
living color, and used as additional means for identifying the 
apparition with his father. In this case, it should have the 
downward intonation of a common assertion. The phrase being 
so regarded, Hamlet, seems, for a moment, to question his own 
conviction : and thereupon, by the declaratory question, no, 
here an ellipsis forj was it not grizzl'd? asks Horatio, by a 
rising fifth or octave, on this negative monosyllable, if it was 
not so. My own ear and reflection incline me to this manner 
of treating the example. But the two parts of the sentence, 
being universally marked as real and separate questions, I did, 
on that condition, in the first case, propose for them, what 
seemed to me a suitable intonation. 

To the scientific and practical Artist-Reader of another 
age, skilled in the principles, and if we may so speak, in the 
design, light and shade, color, and perspective, of Elocution, 
we may predict 3 that without some further discernment, or a 
change of language, in his day, the structure of this sentence 
will never allow a quite satisfactory intonation. As however, 
Hamlet must speak from recollection, I would propose, accord- 
ing to the manner just described, to make the first clause a 
simple assertion, with a downward intonation ; and no, with a 
wide interrogative interval. Yet this, from the influence of 
the usually unconditional meaning of no, does not satisfy me ; 
and perhaps it is only a poor apology for my own inability, to 
say 3 the sentence, however it might be vocally Thought, should 
never have been written, to be read aloud, or spoken ; and that 
here, Shakspeare, the Actor, slept. 

I have said little on the emphatic words, and other points in 
these questions ; and have only occasionally noted the extent of 
the intervals ; the object being, to describe some of the forms 
of partial and thorough interrogation, and the general character 
of their expression. Among the purposes of this work, the 
title-page announces, its design to render criticism in elocution, 
intelligible, through the study, and promulgation of its system 
and principles. I have therefore endeavored to show, by the 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 285 

preceding explanatory criticisms, how these principles may be 
applied ; leaving others, with competent knowledge, and an 
observant industry to make particular applications for them- 
selves. Personal Authority has always laid such a stupefying 
weight on the human mind, that it is hoped this book may be 
consulted, only for those submitted principles which observa- 
tion, experiment, and well-watched thinking, may hereafter 
confirm ; and not for passing suggestions, and critical opinions 
intended by the author, to illustrate the meaning of his subject; 
an illustration being often, no more than an analogy to the 
sense of a proposition, not an examplary proof of it. 

"We have another instance of the thorough intonation, pro- 
duced by an excited state of mind, in the retort of Cleopatra, to 
Proculeius, the friend of Caesar. 

Know, sir, that I 
Will not wait pinioned at your master's court; 
Nor once be chastised with the sober eye 
Of dull Octavia. Shall they hoist me up, 
And show me to the shouting varletry 
Of censuring Rome t Rather a ditch in .Egypt 
Be gentle grave unto me. 

The repulsive indignation of this question cannot be fairly 
represented, without a high degree of interrogative coloring. 
As there seems however, to be some implied appeal, in the 
word, shall 3 it might be supposed, the question is one for par- 
tial intonation. But under this, or any other exceptive condi- 
tion, the passionative state of mind would overrule it. 

When the last syllable of a question is emphatic, and its 
intonation not directed to the partial expression by the preced- 
ing rules, particularly that, regarding the series; the last 
syllable bears the interrogative interval. Should the sentence 
be short, or consist of a single member, the expression will have 
a thorough application. In the dialogue between the murderers 
of Clarence, the second speaker exclaims and aakfl : 

What, shall we stab him as he sleeps ? 



286 THE INTONATION 

From the answer of his companion it is plain > 3 the question 
points at the act of sleeping, and this produces an interrogative 
emphasis on the last word. Had the inquiry been whether the 
victim should be stabbed, otherwise put to death, the word stab 
would carry the emphatic intonation, and the sentence might 
end with a diatonic cadence. 

It will be shown in a future section on Exclamatory sen- 
tences, that a phrase, with the grammatical form of a question, 
yet having the interrogative purpose overruled by collateral 
influences, is not properly expressed by rising intervals, but by 
a contrary movement of pitch. 

Having thus brought the subject of thorough and partial 
interrogative intonation, into something like a describable form, 
T leave the correction of its errors, and the amplifying of its 
approved hints, as a work for the better ear, and closer atten- 
tion of others. 

Let us consider more particularly, the manner of employing 
the interrogative intervals on individual syllables. 

Prefatory to this investigation, it is necessary to consider the 
radical and vanishing movement, when applied to short and 
immutable syllables. In the second section I described the 
means by which the various concretes may be exemplified on 
long quantities : and there asserted, that no syllable however 
short, can be uttered without passing through the radical and 
vanish, under some form of intonation. Perhaps the reader is 
now prepared to receive proof, that the concrete does rapidly 
pass through the wider intervals, on immutable syllables. 

We will then suppose, he is familiar with the interrogative 
expression of a slow concrete rise through a third, fifth, and 
octave, on prolonged syllables. Now let him pronounce the 
immutable syllable top, without meaning or passion ; and again, 
as an earnest question. He will perceive, in the last case, that 
however quickly uttered, it will still have the peculiar interro- 
gative expression. Since then, this interrogative expression, 
on the slow time of an indefinite syllable, is audibly and mea- 
surably made by the wider interval of the fifth or octave ; and 
as there is no other means for producing concretely this interro- 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 287 

gative effect j the inference is fair, that the voice in producing 
that same effect on a short syllable, must have passed, however 
rapidly through one of those wider intervals. For it cannot in 
this case, proceed from a peculiar quality of voice ; nor from 
an impressive degree of force ; and that it is not produced 
solely by a radical skip of the syllable to a high place of pitch, 
may be ascertained by the following experiment. Let the 
reader rise step by step through the musical scale, by repeating 
the word top* taking care to give it no more than the concrete 
of a second at each degree : yet with this discrete rise through 
successive degrees to any hight, there will be no interrogative 
effect. To what then is the interrogative effect, on an immu- 
table syllable to be ascribed, if not to a momentary concrete 
flight of the voice, through an interrogative interval ? The 
audible effect justifies the conclusion; though the increments of 
time and space on the scale, so distinctly perceptible in the 
slower concrete, are on the immutable syllable, altogether be- 
yond the power of measurement. 

From this view of the difference in time of the radical and 
vanish, on indefinite and on immutable syllables; and with 
reference to the uses of their different times in the intonation of 
interrogative sentences 3 let us call the measurable movement of 
the voice through an indefinite syllable, the Slow Concrete: 
and its momentary flight through a short and an immutable one, 
the Rapid Concrete. 

It appears by the trials above proposed, that the interrogative 
effect is producible on the shortest syllables ; and similar experi- 
ments warrant the general conclusion, that every interval of 
the scale is practicable on every syllable of speech. It is how- 
ever to be remarked that the rapid flight of the wider intervals 
through short syllables, compared with their slow movement 
through the indefinite, has a feebleness of interrogative expres- 
sion, directly proportional to its rapidity ; and consequently, 
that the slow and distinctly measurable concrete on indefinite 
syllables produces a more marked impression on the car. Yet 
it is desirable that the thorough expression should be equally 
diffused over the sentence ; and as all syllables have not Bttffi- 



288 THE INTONATION 

cient length, to bear the slow and most impressive interrogative 
concrete, it follows that other means besides those already de- 
scribed, must be employed on short syllables, for effecting with 
uniformity, the intonation of a question. The means for 
strengthening the comparative feebleness of interrogative ex- 
pression on short syllables, consists in raising them, by change 
of radical pitch, through the interrogative interval, to the line 
of the summit of the slow concretes on indefinite quantities ; as 
the following notation of an instance of thorough expression 
will exemplify. 

Give Bru tus a Stat ue "with his an ces tors ? 



Ti=r=^=i=i=^ 



J—J-^— ~& 



In this case the interrogative intonation is made by the fifth 
on every syllable. To the first two, which are indefinite and 
emphatic, the slow and measurable concrete is applied. But 
the third being immutable, cannot bear the slow concrete ; the 
pitch is therefore suddenly transferred by radical change to the 
hight of the preceding vanish ; where, at the same moment, the 
syllable takes on the rapid concrete of the fifth as represented 
by the diminished symbol. The melody continues at this hight, 
on all the following unemphatic syllables, or which, if emphatic 
as may be said of stat, are of immutable quantity. From his, 
the radical pitch descends to the indefinite syllable an, for the 
purpose of rising on this syllable by the slow concrete ; and the 
two final short quantities terminate the melody, by radical 
change and the rapid concrete. 

It is by this method then, the union of a radical change with 
the rapid concrete, that a full and forcible interrogative intona- 
tion is given to those syllables, which are too short to admit of 
the slower and measurable movement. 

The reader may observe the effect of this radical change, by 
deliberately pronouncing the noun convict, as an earnest ques- 
tion. The syllable con being an indefinite quantity, and 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 289 

emphatic, will be distinctly heard to rise concretely from a 
given point of pitch, to the place of the fifth or octave, accord- 
ing to the earnestness of the expression ; and the immutable 
syllable vict, with its discrete skip and rapid concrete, will be 
heard at the hight of that previous vanish. If vict, after the 
slower rise of con, is kept at the level of the radical of con, and 
there uttered with a rapid concrete rise, carefully guarding 
against the descent to a close, the interrogative effect is indeed 
still perceptible, but in a degree far inferior to the keen ques- 
tioning of the radical skip, combined with the rapid concrete. 

It is not difficult to assign the reason, why the interrogative 
effect of the rapid concrete is enhanced, by its being taken on 
the higher places of the scale. For the rise by the slow con- 
crete is after all, but a gradual change from a low to a high 
pitch ; and though that gradual, or continuous change is plainly 
distinguishable, in its degree of expression, from a discrete skip 
to the same hight, still an essential though not the exclusive 
agency of the gradual movement, is its designating that higher 
place by terminating there. Now this designation is the sole 
efficient in the radical skip ; and like that of two discrete notes 
on a musical instrument, when heard successively, as the 
extremes of a wide interval of the scale, it does in effect closely 
resemble a concrete transition between the same extremes. 
When to this effect of the radical change, the co-operating 
expression of the rapid concrete is added, the combined effects 
become equivalent to the interrogative expression, produced by 
the slow concrete on an indefinite syllable. 

As the rapid concrete of a short syllable, even if emphatic, 
produces however moderately, an interrogative expression, it 
may be used without the radical change, in cases not requiring 
a strongly marked intonation of the question. That is, all the 
interrogative syllables of sentences bearing the partial expres- 
sion, for a thorough expression is generally forcible, may be 
kept at about the same line of radical pitch. But the short 
syllables so disposed, must still perform their rapid concrete 
in the appropriate interrogative interval : and it will generally 
be found, that the moderate temper of such questions lias the 



290 THE INTONATION 

abated expression, ascribed to the Third, in the history of that 
interval. 

Besides that succession of radical change above noted and 
explained, there is another method of applying the general 
principle of its formation and use. When the first part of a 
sentence consists of short quantities, the interrogative expres- 
sion may be made, by the voice setting out at once with a rapid 
concrete, on the high pitch, and descending afterwards at the 
first emphatic syllable of long quantity. Thus, taking-away 
from the preceding example, the first two slow concretes, and 
setting over the remaining symbols, the following phrase, as an 
earnest question 3 

Pitt a statue ■with his ancestors ? 

it will have the just interrogative expression. 

Perhaps the reader is now prepared to understand this gene- 
ral statement ; That the current melody of interrogation, in 
sentences requiring the Thorough expression, is made by the 
slow concrete interval of the third or fifth or octave, on long 
and emphatic syllables ; and by a change of radical pitch, 
together with the rapid concrete, on the short and unemphatic, 
and the unaccented ; that in sentences, restricted to the Partial 
expression, the intonation is made by a similar use of the above 
named interrogative intervals, in connection with the phrases 
of the common diatonic melody ; and that in each separate case 
of a Thorough, or a Partial expression, the interrogation may 
in the same sentence, be formed solely by the Third, or Fifth, 
or Octave, or these several intervals may be used together in 
the same sentence 3 as the words require, on the one hand, the 
same degree of expression, and on the other, an application of 
the different intervals to the varying demands of those words. 

I have thus shown, with regard to interrogative intonation, 
that all the rising intervals are practicable on the shortest syl- 
labic time ; their expression, however moderate, being by what 
we have called the Rapid concrete. And it may here be added, 
that universally, the characteristic effects of all the intervals, 
both upward and downward, are perceptible on short and unac- 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 291 

cented syllables. "With this principle of intonation in view, the 
reader is referred to the eleventh section, where the use of the 
rapid concrete is transiently alluded to, in application to an 
exemplified instance of the co-operation of the character of a 
short, with that of the full expression of an extended syllable. 
It is there said of the line $ 

Pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth. 

That, by the slow concrete on par, and on bleed, together with 
a certain co-operation by the other syllables, the due expres- 
sion is spread effectively over the whole line. And it now 
appears, that the same interval which is slowly employed on 
those two prolongable quantities, is, though faintly, perceived 
in its rapid flight through the short and unaccented syllables ; 
each form of intonation contributing a different portion and 
degree of the intended expression. 

Let us now learn the means for constructing the Cadence of 
interrogative sentences : or, as most of these sentences have 
not the peculiar close or descent of the cadence, strictly so 
called j let us to be more precise j learn the manner of intona- 
tion on their three final syllables. 

When a sentence has the Thorough expression, the close is 
made in one of the following forms. And let the reader bear 
in mind, that when applied to proper interrogative sentences, 
the terms slow and rapid concrete, mean always, the rise of the 
interval ; for there is a distinction to be made between these 
sentences, and others, with the grammatical construction of a 
question, which require the downward intervals. 

In the first, if the three syllables are unemphatic, or immuta- 
ble if emphatic, or are the unaccented syllables of an emphatic 
word j the interrogative effect is produced by a radical change, 
and a rapid concrete of these final syllables : these syllables at 
their elevated pitch, being carried on in the phrase of the 
monotone, or of the rising ditone. For since the interrogative 
expression always gives an idea of a continuation of the voice, 
as contradistinguished from the close of the Triad; the above 
named phrases do add their peculiar character to that of the 



292 THE INTONATION 

rapid concrete, and thus effect the required continuation, at the 
end of the sentence. This species of close is here exemplified. 

He said you were in com pa — ra — ble? 



T~t~r3 =3= t : ?f- 



_Sk @|?— 



In the Second ; the same thorough expression being still 
supposed $ if the antepenult syllable is emphatic, and of indefi- 
nite quantity, it assumes the slow concrete, and the last two 
take on the radical change and the rapid concrete 3 shown by 
the notation of the word ancestors in a preceding example. 

In the third, if the penult is a long quantity, it will rise by 
the slow concrete ; and the last will have the rapid concrete 
with the radical change. This form of intonation may be well 
understood without a diagram ; and from what has been already 
shown, it will be unnecessary to give an illustration by the 
staff, to all the succeeding descriptions within the present 
subject. 

In the Fourth ; if the last syllable of a sentence requiring 
the thorough expression, is emphatic and capable of bearing 
the slow concrete, it assumes that form of intonation. Under 
this condition, the radical pitch of the three syllables may go 
through the downward tritone, as here represented. 

Give Fab ius a tri umph for his de — lay? 



SEB^BSEg 



In this instance, the concrete rise of the octave, fifth, or 
third, as the case may be, will create a perception of continuity, 
and thus counteract the tendency of the radical descent, through 
three successive tones, to produce a close : for it is a condition 



OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 293 

of the terminative cadence, that the vanish of its last syllable 
should be in a downward direction. 

When a sentence has the Partial expression, and the last 
words do not require the interrogative intervals, the cadence 
should be diatonic, and therefore terminate with the appropri- 
ate triad. But questions with the partial expression sometimes 
have one of the last three syllables emphatic, which then calls 
for an interrogative interval. Under this condition, the follow- 
ing will be the structure of the cadence. 

First. When the antepenult syllable is emphatic, and of 
indefinite quantity, it will take the slow interrogative interval ; 
and the last two will successively descend from the point below 
the radical of that concrete, and form with it, a proper diatonic 
triad. 

Second. Should the penult be emphatic, and bear the slow 
concrete, the last syllable will have its radical pitch a tone 
below that of the preceding, and by its downward vanish will 
produce the close of the triad ; the emphatic syllable with its 
interrogative intonation, being in radical pitch, a tone below 
the antepenult. This construction however, is not common ; 
for if the emphatic interrogative expression on the concrete 
interval comes so near the close, it is generally continued, by 
the last syllable rising with the radical change. 

Third. When the final syllable is emphatic, and of indefinite 
time, the cadence is made like that of the last diagram, in the 
preceding account of thorough expression. 

The history here given of interrogative intonation, embraces 
a few leading observations on its forms and effects : while 
the whole subject offers some interesting views on the philo- 
sophy of the human mind, as well as that of speech. It 
shows how far, the demands of thought and passion outrun 
the significant powers of the voice at present in use ; how coun- 
ter-currents of expression meet without confusion ; and how 
varied states of mind, under the same forms of intonation, are 
contradistinguished by the conventional specifications of lan- 
guage. I leave the discovery and better arrangement, of other 
phenomena, and of the reason and rule of their variety, for the 



294 INTONATION OF INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. 

observation of others. Upon some future extension of the 
principles of this essay to the universal practice of speech, the 
subject of interrogative intonation will form a full chapter of 
methodic detail. I see, perhaps dimly, some of its abundant 
and unsorted materials ; but have not time, if even the ability, 
to light-up, to gather-in, to disentangle, to specify, combine, 
and complete. What is here done, may seem to be too much. 
For the present age, I believe it is. But this is a concession 
altogether foreign to our view of the progress of knowledge, 
and to the pleasure we may derive from our attempt to unfold 
it. A history of the desirable and welcome truths of Nature, 
in the dignified confidence of even its humble contributions, no 
more asks the favor and applause of those who read, than 
Nature herself asks the gratitude and worship of those who 
enjoy her bounties. She gives what she gives, in her own 
prideless wisdom, without distracting her self-energized dispen- 
sations, by the subordinate schemes of hopeful ambition. A 
record of her admirable things should be, in all, the image of 
her ; and perhaps he would both do and enjoy more, in the 
work of discovering and describing her, who could catch a por- 
tion of the unostentatious spirit with which she bestows, and 
who could put on some of her indifference, to the too often 
thoughtless praise or blame of those who receive. 



THE RISING SECOND. 295 

SECTION XVIIL 

Of the Interval of the Rising Second. 

We return from the foregoing account of the use of the 
wider intervals of pitch, in the construction of interrogative 
melody, to the enumeration and description of other intervals 
of more limited extent, yet of no less essential efficacy in the 
scale of intonation. 

The rising interval of the second or tone, both in its concrete, 
and in its discrete form, has in previous parts of this essay 
been attentively considered, with regard to its character and its 
position in speech. In continuing our orderly notice of all the 
intervals of the scale, we here resume the subject of this 
Second, with some further remarks on its important uses. It 
is the basis of the diatonic melody ; and is appropriate to those 
thoughtive parts of discourse which convey the plain ideas of 
the speaker, as contradistinguished from those passionative 
states of mind, that call for wider intervals, and other signs of 
Expression. Although the Tone, in its simplest state, is thus 
excluded from among the especial agents of expression, we shall 
hereafter learn $ it may be made impressive by stress on dif- 
ferent parts of its concrete ; and that an extension of the voice 
into the wave of this interval, gives a sentimentive or reveren- 
tive dignity to the diatonic melody, without destroying the 
plain and unobtrusive character of its intonation. 

The radical and vanish is a necessary function of utterance ; 
or in other words, no syllabic impulse can be made, without its 
passing through some one form of the concrete. In thus 
asserting, that immutable syllables in a diatonic melody do pass 
instantaneously through the second or tone, I confess, my ear 
cannot measure the progress of the transition. Yet I am led 
to the conclusion, by the following considerations. 

Every equable concrete utterance of a tone, witli its m< >a- 
eurable increments of time and motion, has manifestly the 



296 THE RISING SECOND. 

radical and vanishing progression. When therefore the time 
of this slow and manifest concrete, is gradually shortened, in 
repeated pronunciation, till it becomes, seemingly a point of 
sound 3 the intonative effect of this instant-impulse on the ear, 
does not differ materially from that of the concrete, in which 
the increments of time and the progress of pitch are measurable. 

And further, it has been shown, that the concrete interroga- 
tive intervals of the third, fifth, and octave, may be passed 
through on an immutable syllable. This was proved by the 
peculiar effect of the interrogative voice being thereon distinctly 
cognizable ; and we shall learn in the next section, that the 
semitone, which by its peculiar expression cannot be mistaken, 
does likewise pass through the concrete, on the shortest sylla- 
bles. Now we can scarcely suppose, the Tone has not the same 
concrete movement on momentary syllables, as all the other 
intervals of the scale when uttered with the same momentary 
impulse. There is however a plain but characteristic effect in 
the momentary thoughtive utterance of immutable syllables, 
clearly distinguishable from that of their prolonged and passiona- 
tive utterance through the concrete space of a semitone, third, 
and other wider intervals. This may be only an instant-point 
of voice ; but for the above reasons, we are scarcely allowed to 
doubt, its being a rapid concrete passage through the second or 
tone. We learned, in the seventeenth section, that the wider 
intervals are heard through both the slow and the rapid con- 
crete, in interrogative sentences. Finding here that the like 
times of movement are used in the simple second ; and since, as 
intimated above, it is the same with the semitone ; we may 
state this general law of intonation -» that all intervals, whether 
thoughtive or expressive, are employed both in the upward and 
downward direction, under the two forms of slow and of rapid 
concrete, respectively on the long and short quantity of 
syllables. 

Perhaps the reader may desire to know particularly, what 
portions of discourse receive the tone or second; and with what 
continuity the diatonic melody, is employed. In describing 
and illustrating this melody, it was, according to the plan of 



THE RISING SECOND. r 297 

gradually unfolding our subject, represented as continuing 
through successive sentences. The diatonic movement is how- 
ever, rarely found of long continuation ; the current of the 
Tone being occasionally interrupted by some sentimentive 
form of upward and downward concrete, and of radical pitch. 
We have already learned in what manner the wider rising inter- 
vals are employed in this melody, both for emphasis, and 
interrogation. Other intonations are also introduced for this 
same purpose of emphatic or passionative expression. As 
occasions for using these expressive intervals thus occur in 
discourse, the diatonic melody generally exists only in limited 
portions ; its continuity in the tone or second being interrupted 
by these impressive intervals, more or less frequently, as the 
various forms of their intonation may require. A gazette 
advertisement, a legal instrument, and the purely communi- 
cative style of plain narrative and description, may gene- 
rally be read in the thorough diatonic melody. Yet even 
these must have emphatic words that call for some expressive 
vocal sign ; and there are few compositions, addressed to taste, 
that have not their melody varied, by the more or less freejuent 
occurrence of other intervals than the second. According to 
the line I have endeavored to draw between thought and pas- 
sion, and consistently with their appropriate intonation, it 
might be supposed, the propositions of Euclid should be read 
in the continuous diatonic melody ; but even these are often 
varied by wider intervals, introduced upon illative, absolute, 
conditional or exceptive phrases. The fragments of this melody, 
occurring in prose declamation, in poetry, and in the drama, 
are generally of limited extent 3 and common speech when not 
plainly didactic nor designedly solemn, nor unavoidably dull; 
in t lie heedless current of its intonations, almost effaces the 
simple lines of the fcnenghtiye second, by the vivid coloring of 
its widely-varied intervals. 

Since the diatonic melody > as far as practicable with our 

intermingling divisions^ ia assigned restrictirely, to a character 

of discourse called narrative; and since it is desirable that this 

melody should be executed with the greatest propriety and 

20 



298 THE RISING SECOND. 

elegance, we must carefully regard the uses of the interval of 
the second for the attainment of these ends. 

This proper second of the diatonic melody, not having the 
vocal expression of other intervals, is limited in its effective 
character, to the means of time, and stress, on its own simple 
concrete, and wave. The different forms of stress applicable to 
a simple concrete rise of the second, will be described in a 
future section. The other principal means for adding dignity 
and grace to this plain melody, is that of a long quantity ; by 
continuing the upward into the downward tone, in the form of 
a wave. It is not however, prolongation alone, that produces 
a clear and agreeable effect, in a dignified form of diatonic 
speech. That length should be made in the equable concrete 
movement ; and further, the wave, as well as the simple rise, 
should have the initial fulness, and gradual termination, except 
otherwise varied by the purposes of stress. He who has not 
cultivated his voice in these particulars, will find it difficult to 
give extended length to an indefinite syllable, with its co- 
existent equability and vanish ; and will, on trial, be very apt 
to carry out a long quantity, with the intonation of song. But 
if he will throw away some of his ideas, about a ' Natural Turn' 
for things; and all his vain conceit about self-sufficient 
■* Genius,' and ' promptings of the heart ;' cease to believe, that a 
good elocution, is coeval with the first cries of infancy ; and 
then set himself to learn the rudiments, and overcome the diffi- 
culties of this elegant art -j the light and guidance of knowledge 
and principles, may lead him to an unerring command over 
the equable concrete, and to the attainment of every propriety 
of speech. 

Facility in managing long quantities on indefinite syllables, 
with a precision of interval, and a smoothness and nicety of 
vanish in the execution of this equable movement, is one of the 
most effective resources of a speaker. The skilful performance 
of this concrete function, in the impressive fulness and dignity 
of the Orotund, gives that ear-felt satisfaction, when an accom- 
plished Actor, as I have heard one, with his masterly command 
of voice, first takes part in the dialogue, even on a solitary 



THE CHROMATIC MELODY OF SPEECH. 299 

syllable : while the Young ' Genius of Inspiration,' stooping for 
help to Green Room traditions; and distracted perhaps by a 
buzz in the audience, or a mistake of his Costumer, is obliged 
to work through a whole act, before he is able to feel himself, 
as he calls it, up to the full power of his voice. But science, 
with time, is always ready to prevent, though it can rarely 
cure, the obstinacy of ignorance and conceit. 



SECTION XIX. 

Of the Interval of the Rising Semitone ; and of the Chromatic 
Melody founded thereon. 

The smallest but not the least important division of the scale, 
through which the radical and vanish may be heard and mea- 
sured, is the interval of a Semitone. In the second section of 
this essay, we learned the means for acquiring a distinct per- 
ception of this concrete interval. It was there said 3 if, in 
ascending the scale, the effect of the transition from the seventh 
to the eighth place, be compared with the syllabic utterance of 
a plaintive state of mind, their identity will be acknowledged. 
Now the interval from the seventh to the eighth, in the diatonic 
scale, is a semitone. This interval is used in speech for the 
expression of complaint, pity, grief, plaintive supplication, and 
other states allied to these. 

In ascending through the diatonic scale, by a repetition of the 
word fire, subdivided into two syllables, with a prefix of the 
subtonic y-e to the last, so that fi and yer shall be alternately 
set on successive points of the scale, the transition from the 
seventh to the eighth place gives to the word, here reduced to 



300 THE CHROMATIC 

a single syllable, with its radical i, passing into its vanish r>, 
the same plaintive expression it has through the streets, in the 
outcry of alarm. 

Intonation by the concrete semitone is universally, the sign 
of animal distress ; and when exemplified by the scale, the effect 
is very different from that of the concrete passage of the word 
as a single syllable, through the space of a whole tone, between 
its first and second degrees. Among a multitude of voices 
where the alarm of fire is given by public cry, this utterance 
through the second is occasionally heard ; and perhaps some of 
my readers may be able to call to mind the defect of its un- 
sympathizing difference from the plaintive intonation of the 
great majority. It cannot be exemplified by the pen ; but when 
the uncommon impression of a particular cry, among a number, 
is not produced by quality or shrillness, it generally arises from 
this misapplied form of pitch. Without the means of close 
acquaintance with men, they may be estimated by certain char- 
acteristics of their classes ; and though our judgments in the 
case may sometimes be erroneous, there is often truth, and 
always caution in this method of opinion. Be this as it may, 
I never hear the phlegmatic cry of fire, through a whole tone, 
particularly in the Thorough stress, without a persuasion of the 
general impotence or deformity of the voice or the ear, that in 
this particular, can so far transgress the ordination of nature.* 

* Since the first publication of this work, in eighteen hundred and twenty- 
seven, the practice of public out-cry in the streets of Philadelphia, has now in 
eighteen hundred and fifty-five, entirely passed away. Instead therefore of 
being as formerly, aroused in the stillness of midnight, by the Watchman's 
hollow Orotund, to the plaintive interests and solemn contrasts of near and 
distant solitary cries, awakening our safety, to sympathy with the perils of a 
conflagration ; hear what we have now, under the prosperous onward-ism of our 
great political, moral, and esthetic 'mission' : the Alarm-bells of a whole city 
at once ; the jangling clappers of Hose-carriages without number ; the ceaseless 
roar of inarticulate trumpets ; the screams of boys ; the yells of men ; the 
wrangling preparations for a street-fight ; the oz^-shouting shouts, upon the 
first volley of stones; the discharge of revolvers; the uproar of a thousand 
brutal throats ; and the cautious absence of a ' non-committal' republican police. 
After the Imperial Roman had robbed-out every Treasury, every Temple, and 
every private purse, within reach of his quarrelsome and ruthless sword, his 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 301 

The semitone is employed for the expression of gentleness ; 
and rarely for great energy, harshness, or violence of passion. 
It affects generally a slow time and long quantity. The inter- 
jective exclamations of pain, grief, love, and compassion, are 
prolongations of the tonic elements on this interval. But the 
effect of its rapid concrete is distinctly perceptible, on the short 
time of immutable syllables. For it will be found by experi- 
ment, that the word cup, and other immutables, can be uttered 
with a plaintive intonation, even in its shortest time. Since 
then this plaintiveness, on long quantities distinctly measurable, 
is always produced by the concrete semitone, and not by any 
other known interval of speech ; it may be fairly concluded, 
that when heard on an immutable syllable, the semitone is 
rapidly performed, even though the gradual course of its time 
and motion is imperceptible : thus showing, the plaintive use 
of the semitone, to be within the general law of intonation -> that 
every interval is heard, in both the slow and the rapid concrete, 
as the different times of syllables direct. 

In the next section, we shall learn the uses of the downward 
vanishing movement. It is necessary to consider here tran- 
siently, the downward vanish of the semitone ; since it is one 
of the constituents of the chromatic melody of speech, now to 
be described. 

The downward radical and vanishing semitone may be exem- 
plified on the scale, by passing from the eighth to the seventh 
on the word fire, as one syllable j and descending, alternately 
by the subdivisions fi and yer to the second, where the single 
syllable is again to be used. The concrete movement on the 
single syllable fire, from the eighth degree to the seventh 
has a plaintive expression ; whereas the movement on the same 
syllable, from the second to the first, has quite a different eha- 

avaricious courage failed ; and the Barbarian came back, and down upon him 
in righteous revenge. We, by rapacious Treaties, and Civilized Craft, are pur- 
suing and exterminating the Native Indian from his Land. But Hah! with 
retributive justice, he seems, in the forced submission of las retreat, to have 
thrown to the winds, his gross and unlawed temper; which now, like a national 
malaria, is spreading an avenging savagism among his conquerors. 



302 THE CHROMATIC 

racter. When therefore the voice rises on the single syllable, 
concretely through the semitone, at the summit of the scale, 
and immediately in continuation descends through it, this repe- 
tition of the interval must prolong the plaintive impression. 
Now, as the sentimentive state which dictates the semitone 
usually affects a slow time, and an extension of syllabic quan- 
tity, the expression is generally made by continuing its upward 
into its downward concrete, in the form of a wave. This answers 
two important purposes. It denotes more impressively the 
state of mind, by a repetition of the interval, and in thus ex- 
tending the equable concrete in the line of contrary flexure, 
allows a prolongation of voice, without its liability to pass into 
the protracted radical or protracted vanish of song. The ex- 
pressive effect of this doubled semitone may be exemplified on 
the word jire, as a single syllable, by making an immediate 
return in the downward direction, on the subtonic r, after as- 
cending to the top of the scale on the tonic i of that word : for 
this exactly resembles the plaintive utterance of a prolonged 
syllabic time in speech. 

The states of mind expressed by the semitone, are sometimes 
restricted to individual words ; sometimes they extend over 
phrases and sentences, and even throughout discourse. These 
last occasions, requiring the semitone on every syllable, neces- 
sarily produce a melody consisting of a continued succession of 
that interval. "We learned in the eighth section, that the cur- 
rent of the Diatonic melody is formed by successions of syllabic 
pitch through the interval of a whole tone. The current move- 
ment we are now describing, being through the syllabic pitch of 
a semitone, may be called the Semitonic or, by a term taken 
from the scale of music, the Chromatic Melody. Like the 
former, it is subdivided into the current melody, and the melody 
of the cadence. Its course may be resolved into seven Phrases, 
similar to those in the diatonic progress. Yet the change by 
radical pitch in the chromatic current, as it appears to me, 
being through the interval of a tone, only when it descends, 
and not when it ascends j the use of the nomenclature must be 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 303 

pardoned, when I denote the several semitonic phrases by the 
terms assigned to those of the diatonic melody. 

There is in the Chromatic Melody, as in the Diatonic, neither 
Key, nor Modulation. A similar use of the seven phrases at 
the punctuative rest, for continuing, suspending, or closing the 
sense, is made in each ; and the same rule applied for varying the 
phrases of the current melody. But the expression of the chro- 
matic, being generally more grave, or subdued than that of the 
diatonic, the former more frequently affects the phrase of the 
monotone. 

In describing the diatonic melody, its essential movements 
were subdivided into the concrete, and the radical pitch. The 
same distinctions occur in the progression of the chromatic 
melody. Its concrete pitch is always the interval of a semitone. 
Its radical pitch, if I have not erred in observation, is conducted 
in the following manner. When the current melody descends, 
the radical change is downward, over the space of a whole tone ; 
in ascending, the radical change is upward over the space of a 
semitone. This change of a tone in descending, will be per- 
ceived on executing the downward ditone of a chromatic melody, 
and comparing its effect with that of the first two constituents 
of the triad of the diatonic cadence : for if the downward radical 
pitch of a chromatic melody be followed by another downward 
radical, similar to the first ; or in other words, if we attempt to 
make a downward tritone in a plaintive intonation, the triad of 
the cadence will be thereby so nearly accomplished, that it 
requires for its consummation, only the faint downward vanish 
of that triad on its last constituent. Now the radical pitch of 
the triad of the cadence is formed of the successive descent of 
whole tones. 

The following considerations lead to the conclusion that a 
radical change in the upward direction, is in some cases made 
by the step of a semitone. By intonating the scale in the man- 
ner directed at the beginning of this section, it will be perceived 
thai after rising through the first semitone, on/, the next sylla- 
ble yer seems to begin at the top of that preceding concrete ; thus 
making the radical change of the ascent in this case a semi- 



304 THE CHROMATIC 

tone ; and as every concrete of a chromatic melody is a 
semitone, it would seem to follow, by the rule of the scale, that 
each successive syllable of a chromatic progression, when the 
radical pitch rises but one degree, must be at the distance of a 
semitone above the preceding. But it has been shown that the 
concrete pitch of this melody is, in slow utterance, generally 
continued into the returning downward vanish of the semitone, 
in the form of a wave : on this occasion then, the above reason 
for the radical change taking the interval of a semitone in its 
upward progress does not perhaps, apply. Whether in this 
case the subsequent upward radical change is by the semitone 
or the tone, I am not prepared to decide, with the confidence I 
have felt in the result of other observations recorded in this work. 

In general, there is not much change of radical pitch in 
this melody ; since the monotone is its prevalent phrase. The 
question is however, left to the plain, and unargued observation 
of others ; not to be a subject for useless refinement and dispute ; 
as such, it can be of no importance in the Practical Philosophy 
of Speech. 

It was said in a previous section, that the diatonic melody 
admits occasionally into its current the third, the fifth, and the 
octave. It may be asked -j in what manner these intervals, 
when required in the course of a chromatic melody, are 
engrafted upon it. They have a place in it, for the purpose 
both of plaintive interrogation and of emphasis ; and are ap- 
plied in the following manner. 

Since plaintiveness is the characteristic of this melody 3 when 
an interrogative word requires the rise of either the octave, fifth, 
or third, it is clear, that the expression both of the semitone, 
and of that wider interval should be conjoined. By a direct 
rise of the interval, beyond the limit of the semitone, the 
plaintive expression would be lost. These two apparently 
incompatible effects therefore can be united on one syllable, 
for the purpose of chromatic interrogation or for emphasis 3 
only by leading the voice in the form of a wave, through the 
upward into the downward semitone on the appointed syllable ; 
and from the extremity of this downward vanish, continuing 






MELODY OF SPEECH. 305 

the upward concrete of the octave, fifth, or third, as the intended 
interrogation, or the emphasis may require ; thus forming what 
we called in the second section, a double-unequal wave. When 
the peculiar keenness ascribed to the octave is recollected, it 
must at once be supposed 3 it is rarely found among the signs 
of semitonic interrogation ; the less impressive third or fifth 
being commonly used for this purpose. Perhaps the reader 
may not here require an illustration of the chromatic melody, 
by the staff. The precision I have endeavored to give to the 
terms of this subject will it is hoped, enable him to understand 
it without delineation, or to mark the tablature for himself.* 

The cadence of a chromatic melody is made by a peculiar 
construction of the triad. 

The reader on experiment will find, there is no other means 
for reaching the full and satisfactory pause of discourse, on 
three distinct syllables, than that of the diatonic cadence, 
formed by the radical descent of three whole tones, as noted in 
the first and second diagrams of the cadence, in the eighth sec- 
tion. Consequently the chromatic triad must be made by a 
similar radical descent ; since a downward triad of three semi- 
tones would make no more than a tone and a half. But in the 



* I here give place to the reader ; for surely, by a knowledge of our manner 
of illustration, he can easily draw the appropriate symbols. 

It is the great recommendation of a System of Elocution, derived from the 
pure and living Fountain of investigated Nature, whence every clear and useful 
stream of knowledge flows ^ that its effective ways and means may be recorded, 
and its available benefit diffused and perpetuated. But it is worthy of notice 
on this subject, as on most others, that exactness of science, either from the 
confident quietude of its progress, or its freedom from ill-tempered controversy, 
has always been the least sought, if not the last desired, where they cannot see 
their personal interest in it, by the mass of even the so-called wiser part of 
mankind. And certainly, it is not a little remarkable, in regarding all the Five 
Modes of the voice > that Pitch, with its exact intervals of vocal Intonation, ever 
unalterable in nature, and the only one precisely describable under definite 
forms and degrees; should be that particular Mode, of the Five, which has 
been, and still is declared not only to be unknown, but to be beyond the 
reach of future discovery And all this, because somebody first said so ; and 
then every following individual of tho earless and unthinking Flock said so, 
after him. 



306 THE CHROMATIC 

chromatic melody, the concrete pitch or vanish of these radicals, 
which descends by three whole tones, is made through the space 
of a semitone ; and the plaintive character of the melody is 
thus communicated to its close. 

It is to be remarked here, that a sentence requiring the 
chromatic intonation, may sometimes be terminated by the plain 
diatonic triad, whether the close is made on separate, or on con- 
joined constituents ; and further, that unimportant words and 
short quantities in a chromatic sentence, may receive a radical 
and vanishing whole tone, without destroying the plaintive 
expression ; provided the semitone is heard on all accented, and 
long quantities : though more commonly the short and unac- 
cented syllables bear the rapid semitonic concrete. 

The forms of the Diatonic cadence, which may thus be occa- 
sionally applied to a chromatic melody, are described in the 
eighth section. I here consider the cadence that bears a plain 
tive expression. 

The chromatic cadence may be made on a single long sylla- 
ble ; or it may be allotted to two syllables ; or the space of its 
descent may be divided between three. 

When the three vocal constituents are joined severally to 
three separate syllables, the close is made by taking the radi- 
cals, at the interval of a whole tone successively in descent ; 
and by giving to each of the constituents, except the last, the 
rising vanish of a semitone ; the last having the feeble down- 
ward vanish of the diatonic close. This is exemplified by the 
following diagram ; where the vanish, and the upward change 
of radical pitch in the current melody, are both to be taken as 
a semitone ; and the downward radical, either as a whole tone 
or a semitone ; for I leave this as a questionable point. 



Pit — ty the sor rows 


of a poor old man. 


d 4 * uf # 


www ~f 


^ 



It is true, the last constituent may terminate with a down- 
ward semitone ; or may rise through a semitone, and then in 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 



307 



continuation descend concretely below the pitch of its radical ; 
thus carrying the plaintive expression on the unequal direct 
wave, to the very close. In this case however, the perception 
of the cadence will not be so complete as when made according 
to the above notation. 

The chromatic triad is also made, by continuing the rising 
semitone into a wave, and carrying its downward concrete, into 
the full body of the succeeding radical : or otherwise by the 
downward concrete, meeting the radical, but not coalescing 
with it. In the latter case only, can the radical receive an 
abrupt fulness. A cadence is therefore more complete, with 
the radicals thus strongly marked ; as in the following dia- 
gram : 



A 


poor 


old 


man. 


4 


tf - 






\ 



When the plaintive cadence is restricted to two syllables, 
they may be connected in like manner, by the wave of the 
semitone on the first constituent of the triad, continued down- 
ward to the last ; either by carrying the downward concrete 
into the full body of its radical, or by its only meeting, but not 
coalescing with it ; which last case is here illustrated : 



A 


poor 


old 


man. 


d d if ^\ 


«\ 



The reader can imagine, or draw for himself, two diagrams, 
in other respects similar to the above, but with the downward 
line enlarging Into the radicals, as it joins them, for the coales- 
cing form: in which case there will be a swelling fulness of 
voice, at the place of the radicals, without a break in the line. 

There may be a chromatic descent on a single long syllable ; 
though it should never be used in correct speech, except For 
Borne special design of expression, unconnected with the cadence. 



dUS THE CHROMATIC 

For, to distinguish it, as a chromatic close, from the feeble dia- 
tonic cadence, it is necessary, by the previous rise of a semi- 
tone, to give it a plaintive character. The continuation of this 
rising semitone into a downward terminative concrete forming 
an unequal direct wave, may indeed have the effect of a close ; 
but it has at the same time, a whining intonation, altogether 
foreign to the desirable and appropriate character of the chro- 
matic cadence. 

There is still another form of the Chromatic close, resem- 
bling the skipping, or false cadence of the diatonic melody. It 
consists of a concrete semitone on the antepenult syllable, and 
an immediate discrete descent by the radical pitch to the final 
constituent of the triad ; omitting the second altogether. We 
do not need a diagram of this form, since it is shown by the 
last example of notation, supposing it to be without the descend- 
ing concrete, which there meets the last constituent. It is 
rarely used as a close ; and only when a peculiar emphasis may 
be required on the last word of the sentence. 

As in the diatonic cadence, so in the chromatic, there are 
different degrees of repose ; and these depend on its construc- 
tion. That entire consummation, required at the period of 
discourse, is effected by the triad form in the first of the above 
notations. The second which is still a triad, with its three 
constituents meeting, but not coalescing by the downward van- 
ish, has as strongly marked a character as the first. The 
coalescing form denotes less repose ; since the radicals are less 
distinctly marked by the abrupt fulness ; for it is this conspicuous 
display of a descent by radical pitch which produces the remark 
able effect of a vocal period. The third construction repre- 
sented above, is the feeble form of the chromatic cadence ; for 
being upon only two syllables, it has not the full effect of the 
downward change of radical pitch when made on three ; and 
therefore falls short of the expression required for a satisfac- 
tory close. 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 309 

In concluding this history of the five rising concrete and dis- 
crete intervals, and of their uses in elocution, I have only to 
add that the Fourth, Sixth, and Seventh may be employed for 
interrogative, and tfte- emphatic expression, respectively similar 
to that of the third, fifth, and octave. But the third, fifth, and 
octave, severally adjacent to those other intervals, are by some 
constitution of the ear, more easily recognized as definite points, 
on the instrumental scale, and in the discrete movements of the 
human voice. On this account, the enumeration in the pre- 
ceding sections has been limited to the semitone, second, third, 
fifth, and octave of the diatonic scale. I have not particularly 
inquired into the character of the remaining fourth, sixth and 
seventh ; nor of any fractional extensions of the concrete of the 
other five ; believing 3 they only express unimportant variations 
in degree, of the states of mind conveyed by those we have par- 
ticularly described. 

In all the foregoing descriptions of the forms and effects of 
the various concretes, they have been represented as bounded 
by fixed degrees of the scale. But it has just been said, that 
besides the second, third, fifth, and octave, other intermediate 
variations of these intervals may be used, as vocal synonyms 
in speech. This suggests an inquiry 3 how far any definitely 
marked extent should be assigned to the several intervals. It 
is therefore necessary to be more particular on this point ; and 
to answer my own question 3 whether the attenuated close of the 
vanish, does impress the ear, with the exact place of a musical 
interval on the scale. I might scarcely have noticed this sub- 
ject, had not the possibility of measuring, at all, the intonations 
of speech, been almost universally denied ; and had I not 
thought this old prejudice, even after what has been shown, 
might when driven to its corner, make a desperate defence, by 
some unnecessary refinement on this very question. I do not 
say, the stops, as they may be called, of the vanish, if even 
sufficiently exact for all practical purposes, as I believe them 
to bej are so strongly impressed on the ear, as those marked 
with a precise note, either by song or on instruments. And 
although a want of measured accuracy in the equable concrete, 



310 THE CHROMATIC 

may not be as readily perceived, as in these two cases, still, 
great precision on this point, is not required in speech. In 
music, with its precise notes of the discrete scale, false intonation 
is immediately obvious, even in the successions of melody ; and 
in the co-existent notes of harmony, the effect is still more 
remarkable. But speech is a solo, as well as a concrete, per- 
formance, and therefore, any slight want of accuracy at the 
point of the vanish, even if perceptible, is nevertheless, under 
my observation, of very little consequence. If our states of 
mind were marked in degree, by nice and palpable distinctions, 
it would be proper to express them, by like gradations in the 
voice. Still, as in the grammatical variation of adjectives, the 
three degrees sufficiently distinguish, for common occasions, the 
countless shades of comparison, so with the interrogative inter- 
vals, a difference of third, fifth and octave, is sufficient for pre- 
sent practical use of their vocal expression. 

The Second it has been shown, has what we call a plain dia- 
tonic character, appropriate to narrative, or unimpassioned 
discourse. It may then be asked, whether a want of precision, 
in marking the interval would destroy that character. By my 
observation, it would not ; provided the variation be slight, and 
not diminished one half, down to a semitone, nor extended half 
a tone, up to a minor third ; the former producing a plaintive 
expression, and the latter, as a fault, being inadmissible into 
speech. Should the voice, in executing this and various other 
intervals, even exceed, or fall short of the exact points of the 
scale, by any minute degree, let others more fastidious, decide 
the question of its impropriety. To my ear however, for all 
the precision required by this case, there is in the educated 
voice, no deviating intonation at the close of the vanish, that 
would ever mar, when all else is right, the purpose of a correct 
and elegant elocution. 

And here we may observe, that the Enharmonic quarter-tone 
of six parts, the semitone being twelve 3 as proportionally 
arranged in the Greek scale, described in our first section j can 
have no place, or if place, no effect, in correct or natural 



MELODY OF SPEECH. 311 

speech. I do not however, say, that in the random efforts of 
the voice, some concrete or discrete interval, upwards, or down- 
wards, and differing by a quarter-tone or any other fraction, 
greater or less, from those we have assigned to speech, may 
not 3 in the irregularities, and sometimes even in the intended 
proprieties of utterance, be employed : but we must now per- 
ceive enough of the great circle of speech, to satisfy us, that 
for a perceptible, practical, and im-metaphysical system of the 
voice, these transcendental degrees of intonation, for any of our 
intents, do not deserve a further notice. 

Admitting absolute precision of interval to be a matter of 
importance, the command over it might be easily acquired ; 
since the vanish cannot be attenuated beyond the ability of the 
ear to measure it. The place in pitch, of a prolonged note of 
song, with what is called a diminuendo, is still cognizable, as 
long as it is heard ; and to a studious observer it is equally so 
in the vanish, or diminuendo of a concrete interval of speech ; 
though the state of mind is conveyed more forcibly by the 
louder voice. How far this accuracy of intonation may be 
required in speech, when we shall have arranged the chaos of 
our thoughts and passions, into some efficacious system of exact 
ideas, with no dishonest purpose, must be determined by time. 
From the past, present, and prospective disorderly state of our 
thoughts and passions, I have, in this essay, probably assigned 
more definite degrees, and forms of intonation, either true or 
false, than will ever be required by the greater part of oratori- 
cal mankind. 

If this trifling matter is really indeterminable, let it be 
excluded, with all like refinements, from what should be a 
Practical, not a Contentious system of elocution. Those who 
have so dogmatically asserted the impossibility of measuring, 
what they call the * tones of the voice,' could not have referred 
merely to the point of exactness here under consideration. 
For had the renowned Adam Smith 3 who, as one of the num- 
ber, may fairly represent them 3 only carried his sagacious 
powers of inquiry into the subject of the human voice, he would 
have clearly observed, that with so many satisfying proprieties 



312 THE CHROMATIC MELODY OE SPEECH. 

and beauties, in the natural system of speech, the determina- 
tion of this question is of little, if any importance in the 
extended views of an effective elocution.* 

* I regret to have been obliged to notice in this place, what onr system 
regards as a fatal error in the writings of this able and accomplished Observer : 
and although differing widely from him on the subject before us, I am happy 
to pay the due respect to his character as a Philosopher, in pausing for a mo- 
ment, to find a sufficient cause, if not an apology, for his error, by inquiring -> 
why, with his eminent powers of analysis and of logical arrangement, he did 
not closely apply them, to the investigation of Speech, when he had once thought 
it worthy of his general reflections. Adam Smith, with his means for wide survey, 
and for illuminating definition and division, and when triumphantly applying 
them, to gather into a regular system of Political Economy, those scattered 
facts and principles, on the wealth of nations ;> which many a statesman must 
have thought, as irreducible to order, as the supposed immeasurable and inde- 
finable constituents of the speaking voices has, after a purposed inquiry, left 
us, what I unwillingly record of him j his undisguised belief in the deep or end- 
less concealment of the forms of Intonation. 

In the short and last paragraph of his ' Reflections on the Imitative Arts,' he 
says 3 * As the sounds or tones of the singing voice can be ascertained or appro- 
priated 3 {that is, put to proper use) while those of the speaking voice can-not; 
the former are capable of being noted or recorded, {that is, of being represented 
by symbols, or described by words') while the latter can -not.' I do not here, 
by verbal controversy, meet the error of his belief; having throughout this vol- 
ume, furnished the argument, in its substantial facts. But as he might himself 
probably have anticipated our record of those facts, had he trusted to his own 
resources j I shall endeavor to show, by following-up his course of inquiry and 
explanation, why he did not. 

To prepare for the above final declaration that the 'tones' of the speaking 
voice cannot be ascertained 3 he begins, with remarking^ 'A person may sing 
affectedly, by endeavoring to please by sounds and tones which are unsuitable 
to the nature of the song :' and again, ' The disagreeable affectation (in song) 
appears to consist always, in attempting to please, not by a proper, but by an 
improper modulation of the voice.' Here is a plain statement of the cause of 
the impropriety of affectation ; it is unsuitable to the 'nature' or purpose 'of 
the song:' and it applies equally to all intonation; but Mr. Smith, unfortu- 
nately stopping short in the just course of his investigation, refers it exclu- 
sively to that of song. He then proceeds to state, how we know the disagreea- 
ble and affected ' sounds or tones ' of song to be improper. 

It having been, as he remarks, early ascertained 3 I report his meanings that 
strings or chords of different lengths, or tensions, do in their respective vibra- 
tions, bear a measurable proportion to each others the several sounds or notes of 
these vibrating chords, and the intervals between them, thus become measura- 
ble, and by terms, assignable for all their proper purposes. With this precise 



DOWNWARD RADICAL AXD VANISHING MOVEMENT. 313 

SECTION XX. 

Of the Doivnward Radical and Vanishing Movement. 

The functions of pitch hitherto described, are performed 
principally by a rising progress of the concrete, and of the 
radical change. 

In an early page of this essay we learned, that the voice 
takes a reverse direction ; that the radical movement, opening 

discrimination, and a corresponding nomenclature, it was easy to compare 
the relations of the chordal, or instrumental sounds, with those of the singing 
voice, and to name them: and thereby to describe those that are suitable or 
not, to their purpose, and therefore proper or improper in song. 

So far, the course of the explanation is in Mr. Smith's usually strict and ele- 
mentary manner, clear and instructive ; and had he continued in this path of 
observation and experiment, it would have led, through a similar process, to a 
recognition of the intervals of Speech j and then, easily to their full develop- 
ment. From that path however, as all others had done, he turned aside; 
dropped the directive wand of analogy ; and instead of suggestively likening 
the intervals of speech to those of song, and then ascertaining the truth by 
experiment; just as the intervals of song had at first been thought, and then 
proved to be like those of measurable chords j he on the contrary, endeavored 
to showj there is no perceptible similarity between the intervals of speech and 
of song ; having apparently been misled, in this way. At the moment he 
turned from the path of analogy and proof, the self-dependent habit of his mind 
deserted him, to conform with a traditional authority ; and he was told by all 
around him 3 First: That the 'sounds or tones' of the singing voice are more 
numerous, more distinct, and of greater extent than those of speech ; which 
as a groping notion, crossing the onward track of truth, confused, at the 
start, the scent of inquiry. And Second: That while the former can be mea- 
sured by the constant proportions of musical chords, the latter can-not ; which 
authority, put the chase so entirely at fault, as to end all hopes of the pursuit. 
These ideas having been adopted by Mr. Smith, it necessarily never occurred to 
him to endeavor to form a sort of experimental and comparative equation 
between the measurable intervals of song, and the unknown and required inter- 
vals of speech j asserted universally, and believed by himself, to be impercepti- 
ble. This by his own, and by general belief justifiably closed the investigation ; 
and here Mr. Smith left it : having sought, as it would seem, only some assign- 
able interval, however minute, between the indefinitely small increments of the 

21 



314 THE DOWNWARD RADICAL 

with fulness at a given place on the scale, descends through its 
destined interval, with the same equable concrete structure and 
diminishing force which characterize the upward vanish. We 
must now consider the varieties of form in the downward 
concrete, the occasions of its use, and the character of its 
expression. 

The downward progress of the voice is made through all the 
intervals of the scale. In like manner with the rise, the des- 
cent is both by a concrete movement, and by a discrete change 
or skip of radical pitch. The characteristic effect of the des- 
cent, either concretely, or by discrete skipj and the expression 
of the several intervals, may be learned by the following ex- 
periments. 

Let the reader express himself with astonishment, on the 
exclamatory phrase, well done ; assuming the first word at a 
high pitch 5 bringing down the last concretely from that hight, 
on its prolonged quantity j and uttering the phrase as if it were 
the close of a sentence. Should the intonation on the word 
done, be measured by the scale, it will in his yet unskilful 
attempt, exemplify the Downward concrete Octave, or near it. 
Again, let the interjection, heigh-ho , be made with a degree of 
emphasis that may throw these two syllables on the extremes 
of the compass of the natural voice. The transition from the 

fluxionary concrete of speech 3 an inquiry of no practical importance^ instead 
of comparing, the obvious interval between the beginning and the end of that 
concrete, and the discrete interval between these two extremes, with the concrete 
interval of song, and the discrete, of the musical scale ; for a knowledge of their 
identity would have opened a view of causes and effects, throughout the whole 
of the then deep mystery of Speech. Mr. Smith's adopted authority prevented 
his making this simple comparison and conclusion ; and he unfortunately, and 
most unlike himself, left the subject where he found it. If instead of being satis- 
fied with the argumentative difference between these two cases, he had only 
raised the Baconian Kite of experiment, his verbal logic, would on the first 
flash of observation have been surprised, and his candid discernment philoso- 
phically delighted, by the discovered identity of so many of the measurable con- 
stituents of music and speech. 

Let any one who is confirmed in the creed of this volume, read the article 
here quoted, and he will be struck by the error and the evil of an individual 
who can observe and think, relying implicitly on a world of those who do not. 



AXD VANISHING MOVEMENT. 315 

elevated pitch of heigh, to the inferior place of ho, will he by 
;i discrete or skipping descent. Now this transition, when 
measured by the scale, illustrates the downward Radical pitch 
of the octave, or near it. 

The Downward Fifth may in like manner be distinguished, 
both in its concrete pitch and its discrete radical change, by 
respectively applying them to the words of the preceding 
examples ; but with less emphatic force, and with a less striking 
intonation. 

The concrete Descent of the Third may be illustrated, by 
pronouncing the word No, as if it were the last word of a 
sentence ; observing to give it some length, and to exclude 
every expression, except the simple indication of the cadence. 
The downward Radical pitch or skip of the third, may be 
exemplified by pronouncing the phrase made an attack, as if it 
were a full close ; giving the syllables, made an at, in the 
monotone, and making the satisfactory close on tack. For, in 
this case, taking the syllable at, as the first constituent of *the 
triad ; and being by its short quantity, incapable of completing 
the cadence through the descent of the slow concrete, the voice 
of necessity leaps over the place of the second constituent, and 
closes on tack, in the proper point of the third. 

The effect of the Downward concrete Second or tone may be 
heard on the last constituent of the diatonic triad ; and the radi- 
cal change of the second, in the descent of the constituent- of 
the same cadence, since its radicals succeed each other by the 
downward difference of a tone. 

The downward concrete of the Semitone was described in the 
last section, as being plaintively obvious in the vocal transition 
from the eighth to the seventh place of the scale. If the down- 
ward change of Radical pitch, in a chromatic melody, is like 
that of its cadence; which however, in the last section, was 
siatcd as doubtful; it follows that we have no instance in speech, 
of the discrete downward semitone. But we leave this for 
future observers. 

If the reader is by this time, expert in ascending both con- 
cretely and discretely, through every interval of the scale, he 



316 DOWNWARD RADICAL AND VANISHING: MOVEMENT. 

may, after ascending, immediately return through the same 
interval, with the impression of its extent upon his ear ; and 
thus by practice on all the intervals, become familiar with the 
different degrees and characters of the downward movement, 
both in its concrete and discrete forms. 

We have been considering the downward movement on long 
quantities ; and although, like the rising progress, it may be 
rapidly performed on immutable syllables ; yet when the ex- 
pression of a downward interval is required on them, the tran- 
sition as with the upward, is generally made by the change of 
radical pitch. 

The expressive powers of the downward radical and vanish 
will be assigned, in a future consideration of the particular inter- 
vals of the scale. As a general remark on its character, it may 
be said, in contradistinction to the interrogative effect of the 
rising Third, Fifth, and Octave, that the downward progress 
through these intervals, both concretely and by radical pitch, 
denotes positive affirmation ; directly the reverse of doubt, 
implied in a question. Some other inquirer may hereafter, 
more accurately refer this expression of the downward concrete, 
to a general class of phenomena in vocal science ; and thus 
satisfy the demands of philosophy. I cannot however, with- 
hold the suggestion, yet wishing to be cautious with mere ana- 
logical inference, that the positiveness may arise from its con- 
joining with an emphatic import, a certain degree of the decisive 
character of the cadence ; for this seems to preclude the expec- 
tation of further doubt or reply, by a satisfactory repose of the 
ultimate intonation on a finished sense. In support of this 
suggestion, let us bring to mind, that the replications of doubt- 
ful argument, from a submissive courtesy between speakers, are 
not so often marked by complete cadences as the close of the 
sense in many of the phrases would otherwise bear. Yet we 
know, that when assertions become authoritative from truth, 
or dogmatic from opinion, the closing intonation of the cadence 
is freely employed as the definite seal of self-confident affirm- 
ation. 

After all however, Truth, the strict monitor of philosophy, 



THE DOWNWARD OCTAVE. 317 

reproves us for our conjectures, and allows us here, only to set- 
forth this new instance of consistency in the ordinations of 
nature : for as the mental state of inquiry is contrary to that 
of assured declaration j so in the instinct of the voice, for the 
expression of these opposite states, the very opposite courses 
of rise, and fall, are employed as their respective intonations. 

The downward movement, both in its concrete, and its discrete 
form, when used for emphasis, will be particularly described in 
a future section. It is perhaps as impressive on the ear, as 
the upward movement in its usual forms, but not in its piercing 
degree. Amazement, wonder, surprise, and admiration, when 
not conjoined with an interrogative meaning, generally assume 
this form of expression ; the extent of the interval being pro- 
portional to their respective degrees of energy. Since the 
downward movement differs from the upward, only by its 
taking a different direction, we may look for the same charac- 
teristic construction in each. The same explosive fulness should 
mark the radical ; the same equable movement, its descent ; 
the same delicate diminution, its final vanish into silence. 

After these general remarks on the subject, we proceed to the 
history of the particular intervals of the downward concrete. 



SECTION XXI. 

Of the Interval of the Downward Octave. 

The concrete Downward Octave, in addition to the expression, 
ascribed generally to the downward movement, conveys in the 
colloquial uses of the voice, the vivacity of facetious surprise, 
;is in the instance of the phrase well done, given above. It is 



318 THE DOWNWARD OCTAVE. 

a sign of the passionative state of mindj and in the above ex- 
ample, is the very picture of amazement, and so to speak, 
raises the brow and opens the eye of the voice. In its more 
dignified uses, there is the highest degree of admiration, aston- 
ishment, and command, either alone or united with other mental 
states. Thus the astonishment and positiveness expressed by 
this interval, may co-exist with the complacency of mirth, with 
the repugnance of fear, contempt, hatred, and in short, with 
almost any state of mind not incompatible with that of astonish- 
ment, and command. Eor though these associated states of 
mind have other signs in expression, yet when they go with 
this high degree of astonishment, the downward octave is the 
true and only sign of the combination. 

In the following lines, from Milton's fifth Book, the emphatic 
syllable of the word, enormous, may receive the downward 
Octave, as the sign of admiration, or of astonishment, just as 
the reader may choose to regard it. 

For Nature here 
Wanton'd as in her prime, and play'd at will 
Her virgin fancies, pouring forth more sweet, 
Wild above rule or art; enormous bliss. 

As the same interval thus represents different mental condi- 
tions, it may be inquired, what modification of its structure may 
be necessary. It was shown in the second section, that the 
concrete movement, in its upward, and in its downward direc- 
tion, bears with distinguishable audibility, additional force or 
stress on the beginning, the middle, or the end of its progress 
through a prolonged quantity. Now the application of a differ- 
ent stress to the downward octave, variously modifies its cha- 
racter. On the radical, it denotes a high degree of mirthful 
wonder. On the middle of its course, by a swell at that place, 
the expression becomes more serious and repulsive with its 
wonder. On the lower extreme, reversing thus the natural 
structure of the radical and vanish, it increases the degree of 
the repulsion, and mingles with it some slight expression of 
anger and of scorn. The characteristic thus assigned to the 
octave, might at once assure us that it is of rare occurrence. 



THE DOWNWARD FIFTH. 319 

It may be found occasionally in the intensity of colloquial 
excitement, and in the fervor of the drama : but rarely perhaps, 
in the course of narrative or plain description, since the strained 
energy of its expression can scarcely find a place in melody, if 
not accompanied by wider downward intervals, or wider waves. 
The preceding example however, of the Octave if there appli- 
cable, may be taken as an exception. 

For an illustration of the downward Radical Pitch of the 
octave ; there is, in the first diagram of the fourteenth section, 
a notation of the fall of the voice, from an upper current of 
melody j supposed to be on immutable syllables ■$ to an indefinite 
syllable an octave below, for the purpose of rising again 
through a concrete octave. This downward radical pitch has 
the same expression as the downward concrete octave ; and is 
employed in skipping from immutable syllables, in phrases of 
emphatic astonishment, admiration, and command. 



SECTION XXII. 

Of the Interval of the Downward Fifth, 

The last described interval variously denotes a quaint fami- 
liarity and an emphatic force of wonder or command. The 
Downward concrete Fifth has in many respects a similar 
expression ; but it clothes its agreeable surprise, admiration, 
and authority, with greater dignity than the octave. This 
interval is often used on imperative phrases. Its concrete, 
like that of the octave, may be modified in meaning, by different 
applications of stress. 

In the following passages from Milton's Fifth book, the 



320 THE DOWNWARD FIFTH. 

words, oivn, all, fairest, and three, severally marked, may for 
their emphatic distinction, receive the downward fifth. 

Meanwhile our primitive great sire, to meet 
His God-like guest, walks forth, without more train 
Accompanied than with his own complete 
Perfections : in himself was all his state. 



But Eve, 
Undeck'd save with herself, more lovely fair 
Than Wood-Nymph, or the fairest goddess feign'd 
Of three that in mount Ida naked strove. 

When the Queen says to Hamlet 3 

If it be, [that is, if death be the common lot] 
Why seems it so particular with thee? 

Hamlet returns 3 

Seems, Madam, nay it is! I know not seems. 

The word is, here represents the earnest surprise of the 
Prince, at the misconception of his real state. And his solemn 
state of mind, which rejects, with indignation, the profanity of 
the supposition, that there is any formal show in the deep 
reality of his grief, cannot be expressed by the simple radical 
and vanish. There is a light surprise in this form of the con- 
crete, unsuitable to the gravity of his reverentive state. If the 
voice is swelled to a greater stress as it descends, the severe 
and dignified conviction of the speaker becomes at once con- 
spicuous. The intonation of this line without, however, repre- 
senting the swelling stress on the falling fifth 3 may be thus 
delineated : 

Seems, Ma dam, nay it is ! I know not 



-&1—& — -r—^1 — \^T ff ^- 



% 



THE DOWNWARD FIFTH. 321 

Here a rising third, or the most moderate form of interroga- 
tive expression, is set to the first word : for it includes a slight 
degree of surprised inquiry. The succeeding clause, containing 
a positive affirmation, has the downward fifth on is ; and the 
whole diagram is calculated to show the opposite powers of 
expression in the rising, and the falling intervals. In a future 
section, it will be shown why the radical of this emphatic down- 
ward movement is set, as here represented, so far above the 
line of the current melod} r . 

The Discrete transition of the falling fifth has the same 
expression as its concrete form. It is used for syllables that 
do not bear the prolongation required for a slow concrete ; the 
two extremes of the interval, as in all cases of discrete transi- 
tion, either rising or falling, being on two different syllables. 
The following notation exemplifies the radical change or skip 
of the falling fifth. 



Yet 


Bru tus 


says 


he 


was 


am biti — ous. 




df 


f'f 


4 


e£— 


ef^ ^ 


4 








w 






«r 








d 



This line, as it seems to me, requires the intonation of grave 
surprise rather than that of contemptuous contradiction, with 
which it is sometimes read ; and this I have endeavored to 
express, by the radical skip of a fifth, between the syllables of 
Bntr-tus, and of biti-ous. The craft of Antony's oration, in 
Julius Cwsar, turns upon the design to excite odium against 
the conspirators, by a favorable and sentimentive representa- 
tion of Caesar's virtues, rather than by the coloring of their 
crimes. And though in the well known sarcasm, they are 
reported to be 'honorable men,' certainly not with the least 
Approbation of the title; still, the vocal curl of sneer, some- 
times heard on the words just quoted, is inappropriate and 
affected. At least it is so, in the early part of the oration : 
and when at last the speaker is encouraged to a bolder style 
of argument and language, it is that of anger and revenge: 



322 THE INTERVAL OE 

and these waste no time in the winding course of contemptuous 
intonation. But whatever may be said of other parts of the 
speech, I must claim for the above sentence, those downward 
intervals which express the surprise of the orator, that any one 
could so violently reverse the just conclusions to be drawn from 
the enumerated motives and actions of Csesar : leaving the 
audience to infer from this surprise, that some other than ordi- 
nary or honest reasons must have influenced Brutus to make 
the charge of ambition against him. Should the line be read 
in the common diatonic melody, with the difference of a tone 
only in the radical pitch of its emphatic words, it would report 
merely what Brutus had said ; without the least indication of 
the state of mind I have ascribed to it, and endeavored to illus- 
trate by the preceding diagram. 



SECTION XXIII. 

Of the Interval of the Downward Third. 

The Downward Concrete Third has an expression similar to 
that of the fifth, but in a more moderate degree. 

Dignity of vocal character, like that of personal gesture, 
consists not only in the slowness of time, and the restraint of 
forceful effort, but in a limitation within the widest range of 
movement. And as there is more composure in an interroga- 
tive rise by the third 3 so the expression of surprise and admira- 
tion is most subdued on the interval of the falling third. 

One remarkable effect of the concrete descent of the third, 
on a single syllable of long quantity, is shown at the end of a 
member, or of a clause, containing a complete sense 3 although 



THE DOWNWARD THIRD. 323 

it may not be marked by the grammatical notation of a period. 
This use of the third was noticed and illustrated in the eighth 
section, and there described as the feeble Cadence. Its cha- 
racter is not quite definite : for while indicating a close of the 
sense at its place, it does not altogether destroy the idea of its 
further continuation. No one on hearing this cadence, would 
suppose the discourse to be necessarily finished. 

As the rising third is sometimes used for emphasis alone, in- 
dependently of its interrogative import j so the falling third may 
be employed without expressing surprise or command, solely for 
varying the effect of intonation. This may be illustrated by the 
following diagram. 

None but the brave ! None but the brave ! 



ef 


<£ 




£^ 




f\ 


& • 


33? 


a 


• «r 




c^ 


None but 


the 


brave 


de serve 


the 


fair. 


* f 




4T 


^ t£ 






v ^ 


4 


4 




4 


— €^ — ' 



Although no inquiry is conveyed by these lines, we have the 
rising interval of the third on one of the emphatic words. Yet 
there is a degree of admiration in the case, that may be ex- 
pressed by this upward third. And it will be shown hereafter 
that all emphatic words, whatever other states of mind they 
may excite, do convey something of the admirable. On this 
ground then the emphatic repetitions of the word brave might 
receive the same interval. I have varied the intonation by 
Betting the plain rising second to the first brave, the downward 
third to the second, and the rising third to the last : and this, 
together with the falling third on the word none, in its third 
place, docs produce a1 least a varied effect. I have described 
and represented these intonations as simple concretes ; but as 
the emphatic words are long quantities, they require for a full 
effect their appropriate form of the wave. Speakers who are 



324 THE INTERVAL OF 

not aware of the efficacy of intonation, and who cannot there- 
fore skilfully command it, endeavor to attain a desirable variety 
in these lines, by a transfer of the emphasis of force ; and apply 
it successively to none and but and brave. This I know, was, 
and perhaps still is the formula for these lines, in all our 
Schools and Colleges j by the authority of English Elocution. 
Regarding here the apparent purpose of the poet, and the con- 
sistent design of vocal expression, this variation is altogether 
inadmissible. The contradistinction made in this case, by ap- 
plying stress to different words, in each repetition, gives 
different meanings to the phrase. But reiteration is the expres- 
sive sign of an accumulative energy of thought or passion ; and 
never of a change of sense. The attempt therefore to vary the 
meaning of this phrase, which must be identical under any 
change of emphasis, offends against both dignity and truth, and 
betrays a limited power over the ample means for vocal variety. 
A full command of quantity, and of the numerous forms of 
expression, renders it easy to relieve the ear from monotony, 
without changing or distorting the meaning of the author : for, 
if these lines were a prompting of poetry, and not like some 
other parts of the Ode, a monotonous trick of words, the sense 
must have been intended, under any mental climax, to be one 
and the same, in all the repetitions. 

In the above notation, I have not illustrated the uses of time, 
force, the tremor, and other forms of intonation, though all are 
available, and give additional means for variety. 

The downward radical pitch of the third is employed for 
emphasis, on immutable syllables. But it has a particular use 
in effecting an impressive consummation of the close of melody. 
In the eighth section it was shown, that different species of the 
cadence denote various degrees of repose ; the triad form, in 
which each of the radicals with its downward vanish, is heard 
distinctly in successive descent, being the most marked indica- 
tion of the period. It is possible however, to increase the 
characteristic of this form, by additional means. When a 
melody is in the higher range of pitch, a gradual descent of the 
current, as it approaches the cadence, may be properly em- 



THE DOWNWARD THIRD. 325 

ployed for that purpose. Yet it is more elegant and impressire, 
to apply the downward radical change of a third, with either a 
rising or falling concrete, according to the effect desired, on 
some syllable preceding the close ; as in the following notation. 



Through 


E den took their 


sol i ta tj way. 


«r 


4 4 4 


4* ^*^ 


— w 


4 


* «^ 



"When this line is read throughout, with only the radical 
change of a second j the cadence with its three descending radi- 
cals and concretes, does indeed mark a completion of the sense ; 
but the radical skip of a downward third, from den to took, 
gives that warning of the period, or that note of preparation, 
which produces the utterly reposing conclusion, required by 
the audience, and due by the reader, at the termination of 
Paradise Lost. The last line of Pope's translation of the 
Iliad, may be read to the same notation. ' And peaceful slept 
the mighty Hector's shade.' It docs not appear, in this form 
of the Cadence, that the syllable should be emphatic, except for 
its preparatory purpose ; or that it should be, in different sen- 
tences, at any fixed distance from the cadence. Nor is a 
choice forbidden, between words more or less removed from the 
close, in the same sentence. In the two preceding examples of 
iambic lines, it falls on the cesura of a like foot, in each. In 
the following, from the final Benediction of the Church-service, 
it occurs immediately preceding the Triad. ' The fellowship of 
the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. In the fulfilment of 
Elisha's imprecation on Gehazi, it may be placed either on the 
sixth or ninth syllable before the cadence, and perhaps on both. 
k And he went out from his presence, a leper as white as snow.' 
It is to be remarked here, that a concrete downward third or 
fifth may serve the same terminative purpose; and that in each 
ease this emphatic distinction should not be given to a trivial 
word that does not deserve it. 

Other cadences denote, in various degrees, the conclusion of 



826 INTERVAL OF THE DOWNWARD THIRD. 

a particular sense. This Prepared Cadence, if we may so call 
it, implies that the subject itself of a paragraph, a chapter, or 
a volume, is finished. I leave future observers, to discover other 
phenomena on this subject, and to lay down rules for construc- 
tion and for choice. 

In the eighth section, five forms of the cadence are named. 
Now the Prepared, which is however, no more than a stressful 
addition to the close, may be united with each of these, if we 
may perhaps except the feeble cadence ; but its purpose is only 
strictly fulfiled when it is placed before the second triad, with 
a downward concrete on each of its constituents. All the forms 
of the cadence are severally required by speakers, to give a just 
character and variety to the close. 

It is not expected, the reader will be able at once to distin- 
guish and to apply all the varieties of the cadence. Some of 
them however, cannot be mistaken. The prepared form of the 
falling triad, is the most complete close ; and this is clearly 
separable from what was called the feeble cadence, or the 
faintest indication of the period. With attention to our history, 
no ear will, on exemplification, confound the effect of the two 
triads, and the feeble, with that of the prepared cadence. 

I have little to say of the Minor third ; the expression of its 
downward, like that of its upward concrete, is plaintive ; but 
as well as my ear informs me, it is only heard as a fault in 
speech. 



THE DOWNWARD SECOND AND SEMITONE. 327 



SECTION XXIV. 

Of the Doivnward Second, and Semitone. 

I have classed the Downward Second and Semitone, under 
the same head, on account of the limited extent of the remarks 
here made upon them. They have a high importance in speech ; 
and this, principally as downward continuations of their pre- 
vious rise into that form of intonation, called the wave. 

A remarkable use of the downward concrete second or tone, 
is as the last constituent of both the diatonic and the chroma- 
tic cadence. It forms the constituent concretes of the falling 
triad ; and is used, though its effect is not very conspicuous, in 
the successions of the diatonic melody, for the purpose of con- 
trast with the rising second, which, in the history of that melody 
was, according to the progressive method of unfolding our sub- 
ject, given as its sole characteristic. 

The downward concrete semitonp is employed for variety, in 
the current of a chromatic melody. It is also applied to the 
first and second constituents of a chromatic cadence ; the radi- 
cal descent of this cadence being by the skip of a whole tone ; 
and the downward vanish on the last or closing constituent, 
being through the space of that same second or tone. 

In terminating the history of the downward intervals, one 
cannot avoid pausing for a moment, in admiration at the simple 
forms of the few, well-adjusted, and significant signs, discovera- 
ble in the endless intermingling and supposed complexity, of 
the constituents employed for vocal expression. Nor can the 
prophectic eye of science and taste well survey these efficient 
and manageable signs, without reaching to some foreknowledge 
of that Systematic Art of Speech, which at some distant day, 
must be raised upon the new and lasting foundation of Analytic 
Elocution. I have not extended the inquiry, nor presump- 
tuously endeavored to apply the principles founded thereon, to 



328 THE WAVE OF THE VOICE. 

the entire detail of the subject ; being contented to encourage 
others towards a work of greater range and precision, by set- 
ting before them what is here accomplished, in a case of 
supposed impossibility. Tor if the Coarse-Art of Popularity is 
not now at work, to make the Fine Arts all his own, I must 
hope 3 there will be some beautiful finishing of that system for 
the ordering of speech, which is here just begun. He who 
chooses to follow the path thus opened, may fortunately find 
himself among the first comers to an ungathered field ; a field, 
unvisited and unclaimed, only because it is believed by the 
indolent, to be barren or inaccessible ; or because the eye of 
irresolute inquiry has been turned from the leading star of 
observation, by the vain attractions of theory, and the delusive 
authority of Names. For what more does the phrase, ' genius 
for discovery ' mean, than the Art of forgetting our personal 
selves and the praises of others 3 and looking broadly, closely, 
and perseveringly at our work ? Too many of us, alas ! imagine 
we are doing all these things, when we are only closely and 
perseveringly tracing our narrow path to notoriety ; and hunt- 
ing, sharp-scented, yet often at fault, after the favorable opinion 
of mankind. 



SECTION XXV. 

Of the Wave of the Voice. 

The Wave of the voice, as briefly explained in the second 
section, is a continuation of the upward into the downward con- 
crete movement. We are told by the Greeks 3 this function 
was analytically known to them, But while science did favor 



THE WAVE OF THE VOICE. 329 

them with this initial means, for further increase of knowledge, 
they were thriftless in the trust, and only hid their talent in 
the napkin. It is noticed by modern writers, particularly by 
Mr. Steele and Mr. Walker, under the term, Circumflex accent. 

As the wave is composed of two opposite courses of the con- 
crete, each of which may be of different intervals ; and as the 
direction of the voice at its outset, and the number of its flexures 
may vary 3 the reader will find in the history of this sign, 
numerous subdivisions : but still with their details definitely 
described by the terms, of their intervals. 

The Wave is a very frequent sign of expression, and per- 
forms important offices in speech. It therefore becomes him 
who is willing to turn from the falterings of an instinctive elo- 
cution, to the fulness, and precision of scientific rule, not to 
overlook the subject of the wave. 

In order to represent this matter clearly, let the several 
upward and downward movements of the wave, be called its 
Constituents. The constitutents may then be severally octaves, 
fifths, thirds, seconds and semitones, either in an upward or 
downward direction. 

Further, as the upward and downward concrete may be of 
varied extent, it follows that the wave may be constituted of an 
upward and downward movement of the same interval ; or these 
constituents may differ in extent from each other. Thus the 
wave may consist of a rising and a falling third conjoined; or of 
a rising second continued into a falling third. These varied con- 
structions give occasion for a distinction of the wave into Equal, 
and Unequal. 

It will be found on experiment, that the wave with its first 
constituent ascending, and its second descending, has a different 
expression from one, with a reverse course of its constituents. 
Of the variations thus produced, let the former case be called 
the Direct wave, the latter the Inverted. 

I have thus represented the wave as consisting of onlv two 

constituents. It may have three or even more ; for the Direct 

may have a subsequent rising interval, and the Inverted, a 

subsequent falling one. "When there are but two constituents, 

22 



330 THE WAVE OF THE VOICE. 

it may be called the Single 3 when three, the Double wave. 
Should there be more than three, as may happen in rare and 
peculiar cases, to be pointed out presently, it may be called the 
Continued wave. 

These several forms admit of various combinations with each 
other. Thus the equal and the unequal wave may each be 
direct and inverted, single and double. The double-unequal 
may have its three constituents dissimilar ; or two of them, the 
first and second, or second and third, or first and third may be 
alike. The direct and inverted, may each be equal or unequal, 
single or double. The single and double may each be equal or 
unequal, direct or inverted. 

Upon a diagram, in the second section, I have given a nota- 
tion of each of these leading forms of the wave, except the 
Continued. As their several varieties are easily imaginable, 
and may, from the manner of the examples, be drawn by the 
pupil himself, I shall, in the following Tabular views, name, 
without illustrating, all the possible permutations of their several 
constituents : remarking here, that a limited number only, of 
these permutations are practicably useful in present elocution. 



TABULAR VIEW OF THE WAVE. 



331 









1 [ Octave, 


! 






00 








a 

9 


| u> ! Fifth, 








3 


Direct, .S •§ -j Third, 








M 


« 'C j Second, 








a 
Single, 8 - 


£ [ Semitone, 






d 

dd 

3 


o 

n 

bO 

.s 


> [ Octave, 
| to J Fifth, 
Inverted, ,g .J -j Third, 


3 
O 

,d 

tc 

3 




cr 


e3 


-g ^ 1 Second, 
^ i Semitone, 


o 




Equal, ® 




" 






« 


§ I Octave, 
© £ 1 Fifth, 


© 

3 




* 


g 


"ra 




a 


5 


Direct, ^ a .j Third, 


a 
o 




o 


'to 


-g "fa j Second, 


° 




fcfl 


b 

o 


.« | Semitone, 

Pm I 


•5 




.5 


Double, " 






'P 


' © - 








rt 


© 

fa 

•a 


1 f Octave, 




© 




T* 


© bb j Fifth, 




g3 




a 


Inverted, .g | -j Third, 




► 




e3 


-g 3 j Second, 




© 




w 


.3 Semitone, 

I Ph I J 




<*-■ 










o 










B 










o 




















"3 

(0 




00 


1* j Octave, 
% to ! Fifth, 




*OT 




g 




s 




3 


Direct, J | j Third, 




5 




2 


'JI '£ j Second, 

.£ Semitone, 

Pw L 






,2 


p 






eS 


Single, § . 






o 


o 










£ 


g [ Octave, 
S w> 1 Fifth, 






1^ 


bo 






5 


.5 


Inverted, .5 | j Third » 


a 




o 

c 


C3 


~» <* j Second, 
.£ Semitone, 


a> 

3 

00 




Unequal, ° 




S f Octave, 
| ^ j Fifth, 


" o 




s 


00 






5j 


a> 

3 


Direct, .2 .5 I Third, 


00 




R 
o 
o 

HI 


B 
o 


~.g .Second, 
.b Semitone, 
Ph I 


<? 




.5 


Double, £ 


5 C Octave, 

6 g° ! Fifth, 






g 


C 






W 


£ 








bO 


Inverted, .g £ j Third, 








*£ 


-g «2 j Second, 
ig | Semitone, 






- 


e! 

1 w 





832 THE WAVE OF THE VOICE. 

In the preceding view, only the first constituent of the Un- 
equal wave is given. Another tabular scheme is subjoined, of 
the second and third constituents of this wave, in all their 
varied forms. And I must here repeat, that these tables repre- 
sent what may be performed by the voice, in the multiplicity of 
its combinations ; a limited number only of which are to be 
regarded with reference to their practical purposes of speech. 

In thus penetrating the recesses of nature, we must be allowed 
to describe her most minute phenomena, however presently use- 
less it may be. Nearly all the forms of the wave here noticed, 
might be made designedly by a skilful effort of intonation ; and 
perhaps are made in daily discourse, by the instinctive efforts 
of speech. Yet the unequal wave, as far as I can perceive, 
has no particular expression allotted to each of its several 
forms ; most of the varieties here given, being only permuta- 
tions of constituents, answering the same purpose. Whether 
these waves not specially significant with us, have ever been 
used to denote states of mind, or ever will be, is yet to be told. 
We have heard, but belief should keep a skeptic watch on hear- 
ing, that the Chinese vary the meaning of the same elemental 
or syllabic sound, eight or ten times, by changes of intonation. 
Do they draw upon the forms of the following table of the une- 
qual wave ? Under any answer to this question, the analysis 
of speech, contained in this Work, will enable the Phonetic 
Ethnologist to investigate the subject of his inquiry, with pre- 
cision, and with an intelligible result. 






TABULAR VIEW OF THE WAVE. 



333 



$\ 



The first consti- 
tuent being 



Single. 



Direct 

or 

Inverted, 

Direct 

or 

Inverted, 

Direct 

or 
Inverted, 

Direct 

or 

Inverted, 



an Octave. 



The second con- 
stituent being 
either a 

Semitone 
second 
third or 
fifth. 



The third con- 
stituent being 
either a 



C Semitone 

a Fifth. J s ' co f 
\ third or 

(. octave. 

(Semitone 
second 



a Third. 






fifth or 



Direct 

or 

Inverted 



] 



a Second. 



a Semitone. - 



Double. 



Direct 

or 

Inverted, 

Direct 
or 

Inverted, 

Direct 

or 
Inverted, 



Inverted, 



Direct 

or 

Inverted, 



an Octave. 



a Fifth. 

| fifth or 
^octave, 
j Semitone 
I second 

a Third. I third 
fifth or 
l octave. 

{Semitone 
second 
third 
fifth or 
octave, 
j Semitone 
I second 
a Semitone. < third 
fifth or 
(^octave. 



Sem. 2d 3d 5th or 8th. 
Sem. 2d 3d 5th or 8th. 
Sem. 2d 3d 5th or 8th. 
Sem. 2d 3d 5th or 8th. 
Sem. 2d 3d or 5th. 

Sem. 2d 3d 5th or 8th. 
Sem. 2d 3d 5th or 8th. 
m. 2d 3d 5th or 8th. 
Sem. 2d 3d or 8th. 
Sem. 2d 3d 5th or 8th. 

Sem. 2d 3d 5th or 8th. 
Sem. 2d 3d 5th or 8th. 
Sem. 2d 5th or 8th. 
Sem. 2d 3d 5th or 8th. 
Sem. 2d 3d 5th or 8th. 

Sem. 2d 3d 5th or 8th. 
Sem. 3d 5th or 8th. 

i. 2d 3d 5th or 8th. 
Sem. 2d 3d 5th or 8th. 
Sem. 2d 3d 5th or 8th. 

2d 3d 5th or 8th. 
Sem. 2d 3d 5th or 8th. 
Sem. 2d 3d 5th or 8th. 
a. 2d 8d 5th or Bth< 
Bom. 2d ad Mb or Bth. 



334 THE WAVE OF THE VOICE. 

From a comprehensive view of this table it is manifest 3 there 
might be other methods of arranging its details. Each of the 
distinctions given above might be taken as the generic heads of 
the wave ; and the others might be included as species. Thus 
we might take the five intervals, for heads of as many divisions. 
Then under each, for instance the octave, we might consider, 
First ; the equal form of this interval, and its combination with 
other intervals into the unequal form ; Second ; its direct and 
inverted, and Third, its single and double forms. Or we might 
take the distinction into single and double for the two generic 
heads, and under each of these, enumerate the species, as being 
equal or unequal, direct or inverted : and so of any other 
assumed order of these distinctions. 

I shall, according to the arrangement in the table, divide the 
phenomena of the wave into two great classes, the Equal and 
Unequal, and subdividing each of these by the terms of the 
five intervals of the scale, shall under the heads of these inter- 
vals, consider the direct and inverted, the single and double forms. 

The pains taken to define the technical terms of this essay, 
together with the exemplification by diagram, in the second 
section must have rendered the idea of the lineal picture of 
all the movements through the scale, quite familiar to those 
who really desire to learn. The description of the wave may 
therefore be so easily understood, that without a further nota- 
tion, the reader can readily imagine its various forms, as we 
shall hereafter apply them. 

In order to understand the purpose, and expression of the 
wave, let us recollect that it is compounded of a rising and a 
falling interval, the several characteristics of which have already 
been described. It will therefore be found, that the wave par- 
takes respectively of the expression of its various constituents : 
and further, that its continuous line of contrary flexures ena- 
bles the voice to carry on a long quantity, without the risk of 
falling into the protracted intonation of song. 

The expression of the wave in all its forms, is modified by 
the application of stress to different parts of its course ; at the 
beginning, or at the end, or at the place of junction of its con- 
stituents. 



THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE OCTAVE. 335 

SECTION XXVI. 

Of the Equal Wave of the Octave. 

The Equal "Wave of the Octave, is made by a movement of 
the voice, through its upward, and continuously into its down- 
ward interval. It may be either single, consisting of two con- 
stituents ; or double, consisting of three ; though this double 
form is scarcely used. It may also be differently constructed, 
by the first constituent ascending, and the second descending, 
forming the direct j and by a reversed succession, forming the 
inverted wave. 

The equal wave of the octave in its single form is rarely 
employed in serious discourse. If used in the lower range of 
pitch, to avoid the sharpness of the falsette, it gives an appro- 
priate expression to the highest state of astonishment, admira- 
tion and command. When it assumes the higher range, as it is 
apt to do, it loses its dignity as an impressive sign. Children 
sometimes employ it for mockery in their contentions and jests. 
Its double form has the same expression, under a more con- 
tinued quantity. The reverse order of its constituents, gives a 
different character, respectively to its single-direct, and its sin- 
gle-inverted forms ; for the latter by ending in an upward con- 
crete, has the intonation of a question, through what we called 
the Interrogative Wave ; while the former, by a downward final 
movement, has the positiveness and surprise of the simple fall- 
ing intervals. When the direct and the inverted wave of the 
octave is respectively double, the rule of final expression will 
be reversed ; for the double-direct will then end with the rising 
or interrogative movement. 

The double form of the wave, particularly of the octave, 
claims al tent ion rather as a part of our physiological history, 
than ;i< a subject of oratorical propriety and taste; and may, 
in point of use and expression, be rather classed with theatrical 
outrages, and vulgar mouthings. 



66b THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE FIFTH. 

SECTION XXVII. 

Of the Equal Wave of the Fifth. 

Enough has been said of intervals, to explain the Equal 
Wave of the Fifth. Its name is descriptive of its structure. 
Nor need it be shown particularly of this, nor indeed of the 
succeeding sectional heads of the wave, in what manner the 
single and double, the direct and inverted forms are made. 

The equal wave of the fifth, is used as one of the means of 
emphatic distinction ; and has therein an expression varying 
with its form. The equal-single-direct wave of the fifth consists 
of an ascending and a descending concrete ; the first expressive 
of interrogation, and the last of positiveness and surprise. But 
a junction of these opposite constituents takes in a great degree, 
from the rising, its indication of a question, while it leaves to 
the falling, the full character of its positiveness and surprise. 
There is however, another effect of this junction, besides the 
overruling of interrogation. When a state of mind requiring 
the simple downward fifth, is grave or dignified, it is expressed 
by pre-joining the rising fifth 5 thus forming the direct wave. 
And further, the direct wave is used instead of the simple fall, 
to give time to the syllable that bears it ; for should the em- 
phatic syllable require a prolonged quantity, this wave takes 
the place of the simple interval, which under unskilful intona- 
tion might, in the effort to extend it, be liable to pass into the 
protracted radical, or vanish of song. 

The inverted wave of the fifth has the compound expression 
of surprised interrogation, produced by the termination of its 
last constituent in the upward vanish. And thus, it appears 3 
the direct wave of this, as well as of other wider intervals, 
retains a degree of interrogation ; and the inverted, a degree 
of positiveness and surprise. 

There is not much difference between the expression of the 
single, and of the double wave of the fifth, except what arises 



THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE THIRD. 337 

from a change of structure by the addition of a third constituent. 
The double-direct here assumes an interrogative expression, 
from the vanishing rise of its last constituent ; and the double- 
inverted has the meaning of surprise from its downward termi- 
nation. Perhaps there is a little scorn conveyed by the double 
form of the equal wave of the fifth. This is certainly the case 
when the last constituent receives greater stress than the others. 
On the whole however, this double form is not very frequently 
used as a sign of expression. 



SECTION XXVIII. 

Of the Equal Wave of the Third. 

The Equal Wave of the Third, in the degree of its expression, 
bears such a relation to the equal wave of the fifth, as the simple 
rise of the third bears to the simple rise of that interval. 

In all its forms, whether single or double, direct or inverted, 
the expression resembles respectively, but in a more moderate 
degree, that of the different species of the equal wave of the 
fifth. From its less impressive character, it is more frequently 
employed for emphasis in the sentimentive style, than the fifth 
and the octave, which are especially appropriate to the earnest- 
ness of colloquial dialogue, and to the passionative intonations 
of the drama. It also serves, like the other waves, to extend 
tin 1 quantity of syllables in deliberate and dignified discourse; 
and to preserve, at the same time, the characteristic concrete 
of speech. 

The equal wave of the Minor third, we have said is not 
admissible into speech ; but if improperly introduced, as it often 
is, the effect of its inverted form does not differ much from 
that of its direct. 



338 THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SECOND. 

SECTION XXIX. 

Of the Equal Wave of the Second. 

We have now to consider the equal wave of the second, which, 
if ever the time for a Natural, and thereupon a Scientific Sys- 
tem of Elocution shall come to pass, will be regarded as a very 
important and interesting part of intonation. 

The difficulty of arranging perspicuously, the details of a 
subject, altogether as new to the author himself, as to his 
reader ; and of giving a full description of parts that are ele- 
mentary and closely related, but that must be successively 
explained, has obliged him to proceed in the manner of gradual 
and partial development 3 of subsequent addition 3 of anticipa- 
tion 3 and of frequent reconsideration, which distinguishes this 
first, and so far, only full and instructive method of Analytic 
Elocution. In improving, or completing those successive 
arrangements of science, which through years or centuries, 
have been progressively extended, retrenched, and simplified 3 
method after method has been adopted, altered, and rejected ; 
while every subsequent observer, knowing the attempts and 
failure of his predecessors, has been thus enabled to supply the 
deficiencies, and correct the errors of former classifications. 
But for plan and purpose, in this offered system of intonation, 
there was no preceding outline either of fancy or of truth ; no 
instructive sketches of corrected errors, to save the author from 
his own ; and as yet, even no friendly-enmity of criticism to 
' pluck' them from his pages and ' throw them in his face.' 
He was therefore at first, and has been, in preparing succeed- 
ing editions, obliged to ask the arduous, but willing assistance 
of his own endeavors, to supply his oversights, and correct his 
faults : too often a vain and fruitless labor.* In accordance 

* What is here said of the kindly slaps of criticism is no longer literally true ; 
thanks to the friendship of enmity ; for it has corrected our over-estimate of the 



THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SECOND. 339 

with the manner of Dividing and Instructing here employed, 
our account of the diatonic melody, regarded only the radical 
and concrete pitch of the second, and its successions; thereby, 
to avoid confusing the reader. Other functions and uses of 
the concrete were therefore kept out of view. It has since been 
shown, that the downward vanish of a second is introduced, for 
the purpose of varying the current ; and that for interrogative, 
and for emphatic expression, other intervals both rising and 
falling, and these united into the wave, contribute to form the 
full and proper expressive melody of speech. "We proceed to 
show further, that the Diatonic Melody, this Groundwork of 
all the other intervals, employs the wave of the second as 
an important, indeed an essential constituent of its delibe- 
rate and dignified character. The reader has already learned 
that long quantity is necessary for executing the wider inter- 
vals and waves. When therefore the sentimentive and pas- 
sionative styles are occasionally required on the diatonic 
Ground, they can be applied only to prolonged syllables. 
But as the plain narrative melody does not, along with its dig- 
nified character, convey any remarkable expression, there should 
be Bpme means, for denoting this character, different both from 
the wider intervals and waves, which are passionative signs; and 
from the simple rise and fall of the second, which are suitable 
only to short quantities, in a quick and "tripping' speech. 
These means are a prolonged quantity, on the wave of the 

intellectual capacity of the old elocutionist. I may indeed differ from some of 
my readers, who believe that truth and justice can never lose their dignity, 
however they may descend to the commonality of persons and things ; yet I am 
willing, under the privilege of a note at least, to make, if it so seems, a sacri- 
fice of dignity and taste to a humorous thought, reminding me that in eighteen 
hundred and fifty-five, an English Reviewer, of limited learning, perhaps some 
journalized influence, and very near to total deafness, fell at last, not upon the 
errors of our work, but upon what he took to be its incomprehensibility ; and 
disappointing our expectations about 'faults and face;' threw the whole work 
itself ' to the dogs ; ' not considering ; how quick an ear these animals have for 
the high and low, long an 1 Bhort, strong and weak, harsh and gentle, and par- 
ticularly for the barking abruptness in the human voice. 

We wait to see whether trusty I'onto, can make more of the subject, thau his 
districted Master. 



3-10 THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SECOND. 

second, in its direct and inverted, and sometimes its double 
form. In a previous section, there is an illustration, from 
Paradise Lost, of the want of sufficient length, in certain ac- 
cented and emphatic syllables. I here use that instance for 
exemplifying the wave of the second ; where the simple rise 
and fall of this interval is set on all the short and unaccented 
syllables ; the direct or inverted wave, on all that are at the 
same time of long quantity, and accented and emphatic ; and 
where the principle of the faint rapid concrete, on short and 
unaccented syllables is applied even to the interval of the 
second. 



High on a throne of roy al 


state, which far 


-m^ m m m± m m^ 


a * ^ 


V tggj ^g? |p y fp W ^j- 


\ 



Out shone the wealth of Or— mus and of Ind, 



^-^ 



y_ q^y 4* ^\ 



Or where the gor — geous 


East with rich-est hand 


4 i^ ~ fLy 4 


ft Q 44€ ^ 


\ 





Show — 


-ers on her 


Kings bar- 


-ba — ric 


pearl and 


gold, 


-€^ 


1 <i * 


$^ $ 


d d 


C^4 


• 








7 



Sa tan 


ex 


-alt 


ed 


sat. 




J 


•V 


A 




W 




^ 


* 


^ 











THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SECOND. 341 

This is a fine passage of descriptive poetry : and the intona- 
tion here directed, seems, to me at least, appropriate to its 
character. There is great grandeur in the generic idea of 
the Occasion ; while the language is richly associative, and the 
comparisons, striking and magnificent. But the description is 
not prompted by that excited state of mind which we distin- 
guished, as passionative : nor indeed should it excite that con- 
dition in the mind of an audience. The subject is presented by 
the narrator, for dignified and grave attention. We are invited 
to look up at the ' bad eminence ' of this royal exaltation, and 
behold the splendor, surrounding a super-human greatness. It 
is however, only the Still-life of the imperial Throne, and has 
not as yet aroused a passion. The poet, without himself stoop- 
ing to overcome the beholder with the vulgar disturbance of 
wonder, has raised his fixed attention, to the refined and senti- 
mentive state of admiration. For this requires no florid into- 
nation ; no wider rising and falling thirds or fifths or octaves ; 
no semitones; no wider waves; no tremors, nor percussive 
accents j in short, no excessive nor extraordinary use of qual- 
ity, time, force, abruptness or pitch. The diagram shows the 
simple upward or the downward rapid concrete, on all the short 
and unaccented syllables ; and the direct or inverted wave of 
the second, on the long and accented. The feeble cadence is 
set on the word gold, as this terminates the description of the 
Throne, but not the sentence ; which is finally closed by the 
falling triad : and this is made more complete, by the radical 
descent of a third on the syllable tan, forming thus the Pre- 
pared cadence : which however, in the continuation of the text, 
is not required. I have endeavored so to arrange the intona- 
tion, as to give variety to the current of the melody. For 
although the prevailing phrase of radical pitch is the monotone; 
whether the concrete rises or falls, or the wave is direct or 
inverted; yet this line is broken occasionally by the rising and 
falling ditone. The phrase of the monotone as here used, 
is strictly appropriate to that deliberate and solemn style, 
formed by adding what we have called the seiitinicntive aignflj 
to narrative and descriptive discourse. And though we eannot, 



342 THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SECOND. 

consistently with our term, plain thought, properly ascribe 
expression to the monotone, yet we perceive, it has a remarka- 
ble character.* 

Although I have referred to the necessary use of the rapid 
concrete, on short and unaccented syllables, in the diatonic 
melody ; and in the sentimentive, here illustrated ; yet when 
this style is designed to be impressively deliberate, there may 
be a slight extension of the time of the rapid concrete. This 
when cautiously guarded against drawling on immutable sylla- 
bles, softens the contrast between the slow and rapid quantities, 
gives a varied unity to the vocal current, and smoothly extends 
and leads the concrete towards the wave. And this under 
the impressive subsonorous fulness of the orotund, will at some 
after time, give to the then instructed speaker himself, and his 
enlightened audience, that intelligent satisfaction, which must 
surely flow from the analytic and esthetic principles of an 
exalted style of epic, dramatic, and God-with-Nature adoring 
elocution. 

I am left so alone with my subject, that it is social even to 
imagine a companion. I therefore suppose the reader may 
with me, recollect, that the immediate succession of the rising 
and the falling ditone, forms what was called the phrase of 
Alternation. When this is employed in a current melody, the 
constant variation of the radical pitch, together with a short 
syllabic time, and a use of the simple concrete, broadly distin- 
guishes its effect, from that of a long quantity and the mono- 
tonej in the preceding example. The following notation of the 
description of Abdiel's encounter with Satan, in Milton's Sixth 

* Sometimes a subject is more clearly viewed, in the broad light of its con- 
trary. Let our extract then be read in the Falsette, with every kind of interval 
and wave, mingling as if they had been given us, only to run up and down the 
voice, and tumble over syllables, without a steady regard to thought or expres- 
sion. Such outrages always suggest contrasts ; and we close our ears upon the 
nuisance, to imagine the lines, uttered in a full orotund, with a well adjusted 
intonation of the diatonic melody, by a Garrick or a Booth. It may perhaps be 
too ludicrous an illustration, even for a note: but just think of that reverentive 
Anthem 3 'Before Jehovah's Awful Throne,' sung by a single Soprano, with the 
accompaniment of a fife and a violin ! 



THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SECOND. 343 

book, will illustrate the character, we must not call it the 
expression of the alternate melodial phrase. 



So say — ing, a no 


-ble 


stroke 


he 


lift— ed high, 


J * o d <6 


•I 


4 


«T 


m © ^ 


-w tea w w 




v 




^ V* 


Which hung not, but so 


swift 


with 

4 


tern— 


--pest fell 


d 1 4 * * 


4 


9 


1 


% «f 


m \ v 


On the proud crest of 


Sa— 


— tan, 


that 


no sight, 


«"V«"V 4 


«T 


/0k 


4 


4 i 


w - W w 




^ 


x& 


^89 



Nor mo — tion of swift thought, less could his shield, 

4 -4^-4- 




On comparing this with the preceding diagram, we find a pre- 
dominence of monotones, in the former, and of the alternation 
in the latter ; the line of the monotone in the former, being 

* The three early editions of ' The Philosophy of the Human Voice' have the 
epithet quick, instead of swift thought. How this oversight occurred I cannot 
tellj yet it was not until comparing, for the fourth edition, our examples with 
the originals, that I discovered the error. For my own reading, I might draw 
reasons, both from intonation and from rhetoric, why I regret the discovery. 
But this does not concern the criticism or taste of others. 



344 THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SECOND. 

broken by an occasional ditone ; and the alternation in the lat- 
ter by an occasional monotone. In the example before us the 
active character of the description, assumes a varying radi- 
cal pitch ; while the ear and taste of the Poet furnish a 
phraseology suitable to that character. Consistently, as it 
seems to me, with the language, and with the rapid energy of 
the occasion, I have set the wider interval of the third, only on 
four syllables ; and the wave of the second, on four : nor should 
these intonations have more than a limited quantity. The 
Fourth or Feeble form of the cadence is set on the last syllable 
of saying : since the phrase, as the sequel to an antecedent 
declaration, is slightly terminative. All the rest of the into- 
nations are simple rising and falling rapid concretes, and are 
thus accommodated to the drift of the description. The earnest 
purpose of the action does not allow a full and reposing cadence 
on intercept. I have therefore used a tripartite form, and 
given the first two constituents, rising concretes. There is a 
wider range of pitch in the melody ; for though the radicals 
are still proximate in their successions, their course embraces a 
greater extent on the staff, and thus produce a lively contrast 
with each other. Now all these conditions give to the lines 
before us, a character very different from that of the former 
example. A prevalence of the monotone here, might perhaps 
represent the dignified courage, and calm security of an aggres- 
sor confident of success ; but it would be misapplied and faded 
coloring, for the ideal picture of hurried watchfulness and 
dreadful expectation, which the description of this descending 
impetus is calculated to excite. It is true, the above lines are 
only descriptive of a super-human action. But it seems to 
be a rule of sympathy in such cases, that he who describes, 
should himself, to a degree, take on the state of mind, which 
he endeavors to excite in others, by his own verbal picture of 
the scene. 

The former of the above illustrations, is purely in the dia- 
tonic melody : and though the latter is strictly descriptive, still 
its character either calls for, or admits the rising and falling 
thirds assigned to it ; while at the same time it affords an exam- 



THE EQUAL WAVE OF TUE SECOND. 345 

pie of the introduction of wider intervals into the diatonic cur- 
rent. Others may think, that still wider intonations might he 
employed. Let it he as they wish. I am endeavoring to set- 
forth the principles of an art, not to oppose the free-will ot 
Taste in the thoughtful application of them. In any case how- 
ever, a difference of opinion on the last example may serve to 
show how difficult it is, nicely to divide the expressive, from 
the /^-expressive in speech. 

What is here said of the use of the direct wave of the second, 
in adding dignity, reverence, and solemnity to a diatonic melody, 
is also true of its inverted form. 

I am not aware that the double-equal wave of the second has 
a character different from that of its single form, except what 
may arise from extending the quantity of syllables. Indeed, 
an unusual prolongation of quantity in the diatonic melody, 
instinctively produces the double wave ; since the voice may take 
this serpentine course, through the second, without producing 
any unpleasant snarl, similar to that of the double wave on some 
of the wider intervals. 

There is what we called a Continued wave, or a progress of 
the line of contrary flexures beyond the term of three con- 
stituents. It is only on the time of an equal wave of the second 
in a diatonic melody, and of a semitone in the chromatic, that 
this continued extension, if at all, is allowable. For should 
some extraordinary state of reverence or other solemnity 
require an unusually long quantity ; and should the time of the 
syllable not be exhausted, when the voice has passed through 
the three constituents of the double wavej it must if still con- 
tinued, necessarily be carried-on either in the note of song, or 
through further flexures of the wave. When it takes the course 
of the flexures, the bad effect of the former case will be avoided ; 
nor will this multiplied repetition of the rise and fall, through 
this small interval of a tone, produce any positive or unpleasant 
impression.* 

* It may be asked here, "why, if the voice can be thus prolonged on a con- 
tinued wave ; should the length of syllables, as stated in our fourth section, be 
restricted? The extreme prolongation, in the above case, is made ou a s'uiylc 
•2:) 



346 THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SECOND. 

I have ascribed an importance to the subject of this section, 
because it is the foundation of a very general principle in elocu- 
tion. The reader will now perhaps admit the propriety of our 
distinction between the effect of a narrative melody formed by a 
varied rise and fall of the voice through the interval of a tone 3 
and the effect produced by the occasional introduction of other 
and wider intervals, constituting what was distinctly called 
Expression. Now, very few speakers are able to execute this 
plain melody, in the beautiful simplicity of its diatonic con- 
struction. Some constantly use throughout their current, the 
simple rise of a third, a fifth, or a semitone, or give every 
emphatic syllable in an impressive form of their waves. Per- 
haps these faults proceed from an ambitious attempt to effect a 
greater degree of dignified expression, or variety in the simple 
melody, than the speaker is able to accomplish by the second 
alone. In this attempt he employs some of the wide and excep- 
tional intervals, and thus produces false and monotonous into- 
nation. For the remarkable effect of the expressive intervals 
cannot be unduly repeated, without offending a well instructed 
ear. While the simple and unobtrusive second, may be con- 
tinuously used without producing a like disagreeable uniformity : 
since changes of the simple rising and falling second, of the 
direct and inverted equal wave of this interval, together with a 
judicious use of time, and radical pitch,' afford sufficient variety 
to the diatonic melody, without destroying its characteristic 
plainness. 

It is the mental grandeur represented in the first of the two 
preceding diagrams, that under the Old Elocution, would dis- 
pose a Reader, in mistaking words for things, to endeavor to 
express that grandeur, by what he might choose to call grandeur 

tonic or subtonic element ; and we said in the same section, that a syllable 
consisting of a single tonic might be indefinitely prolonged ; whereas proper 
syllables are the product of certain combinations of the elements^ and these by 
their position, in our language, arrest the syllabic impulse. The syllables all 
and ante might indeed be continued during the whole term of expiration ; but it 
would be on one alone, of their respective elements ; and thus the instances 
are not embraced in the general law of syllabic combination, or are only excep- 
tions to it. 



THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SECOND. 347 

of voice ; and thus, by an improper use of intervals of greaJk 
extent, for the representation of greatness of thought and pas- 
sion, to become pompous and affected. But the new School of 
Nature tells him that grandeur of thought in Elocution, is 
signified, like grandeur in all other arts 3 by a Unity, which 
must be both Great, and Uncommon. 

Unity, which of itself is a primary essential of grandeur, is 
denoted in the voice, by a continuation of simple concretes and 
waves through limited intervals ; the melody being varied so far 
only, as not to destroy the similarity of its character as a 
whole. 

Greatness of vocal Unity is denoted by gravity of pitch, 
extension of quantity, the fulness of an orotund quality, and 
by a deliberate and distinct articulation. 

An Uncommon vocal Unity is shown by a continuation of an 
elevated vocal style, whether of grandeur or elegance, but 
unusual in the habits of the popular mind and ear. 

All these vocal signs, characterize a deliberate, dignified, and 
self-possessed execution of that form of Diatonic Melody, which, 
according to our Divisions, inexact as they may be, I call the 
reverentive or sentimentive drift ; intermediate between the 
purely Thoughtive and the Passionative. And here we may 
remark, of every character of intonation, as of every style of 
Writing ; that it is not a general use of wide and winding inter- 
vals in one case, and of strange and high-sounding words, in the 
other 3 but of appropriate intervals for states of mind in the 
former, and of ' proper words in their proper places ' in the 
latter 3 which respectively produces the purity, propriety, preci- 
sion, truth, dignity, force, freedom from affectation, and the 
like impressive and satisfactory effect in each. The English 
Church service furnishes throughout occasions for the use of 
the most deliberate, dignified, and solemn character of the 
speaking voice. The gravely thoughtive and reverentive state 
of mind, in its exalted subject; the brevity of style, so essen- 
tial to the representation of that thought and reverence; with 
the unaffected, yet impressive structure of its saxon-worded 
rythniusj all contribute to a prevailing and serious unity, to a 



348 THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SECOND. 

simple grandeur of utterance, altogether undisturbed by passion, 
and to a dignified Drift, never perhaps found in any other nar- 
rative, directive, and suppliant form of composition. Let us 
take its solemn opening. 



The Lord is in his ho ly tem — pie. 


Let 


dT^ *^ ^ ^ ®^®"" / • £^ak : 


•r 


^gj! |p *jp W W 



the earth keep si lence be — fore him. 



-®p 



The current of this notation is throughout diatonic, except, 
all, which has the unequal-direct wave of the second and third, 
or it might be the fifth. It is seen that some of the short and 
unaccented syllables have a moderate length of wave ; thus to 
give to the whole, the fullest degree of dignified prolongation : 
in this extension however, the reader must use his taste and 
discretion, to prevent awkwardness or affectation. Of the two 
sentences, the feeble cadence is set at the first, and the Full, 
closes the last. 

No one without inquiry on this subject, can be aware of the 
unpretending yet dignified force, the diversified succession, and 
severe simplicity of the diatonic melody, when conducted on 
the principles of the radical change, formerly laid down ; and 
varied by the appropriate disposition of the single rise and fall, 
the direct and inverted wave, the degrees of quantity, and cer- 
tain forms of stress to be described in a future section. Upon 
the vocal level, so to speak, of this melody, the occasional 
expression of the wider intervals comes with all the effect that 
variety of impulse and measurable contrast must necessarily 
produce. Whereas he who is constantly dealing out his semi- 
tones, thirds, fifths, and octaves, allows no repose to the ear ; 
and when the real occasion for their expression occurs, the 
sensibility to their emphatic application is exhausted. 






THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SEMITONE. 349 

SECTION XXX. 

Of the Equal Wave of the Semitone. 

The chromatic melody was formerly described as a succes- 
sion of radical and vanishing semitones 3 and it was even then 
stated, that a continuation of the rising into the falling interval 
is used for repeating the plaintive impression of the simple 
concrete, and for adding length to the quantity of syllables. 
This wave is remarkably distinguished by its peculiar and 
attractive expression. Its direct, inverted, and double forms 
have necessarily, by repetition of the interval, greater plain- 
tiveness and dignity than the simple rise ; and at the same time 
furnish means for diversifying the current melody. 

A mingling of the reverse forms of the wave, is employed in 
the chromatic melody ; for the continued repetition of this 
remarkable interval, and the frequent occurrence of the phrase 
of the monotone, make it desirable to vary the impression of the 
melody, without destroying the essential character of its plain- 
tive constituents. Now this is accomplished, if I am not over- 
nice in the distinction, by an appropriate disposition of the 
direct and inverted wave ; these contrary movements having a 
slight difference, perceptible to me at least, on comparative trial : 
for the effect of the simple rising interval being slightly 
different from that of the falling, the varied final constituent 
gives, though faintly, its character, respectively to the reverse 
forms of the semitonic wave. It is to be observed however, 
that while the difference between the direct and the inverted 
waves of the wider intervals is expressively marked j the 
difference between the direct and the inverted waves both of the 
tone and of the semitone, though distinguishable, yet contributes 
but slightly to variety, in their respective melodies. 

On the Bubjed of this and the preceding section, it is worthy 
of remark, that whenever a good reader expressively prolongs 
the quantity of his syllables, and surely no one can read well 



350 THE EQUAL WAVE OF THE SEMITONE. 

■without this use of quantity, he does instinctively employ these 
waves, in all deliberate and solemn utterance ; while on the 
other hand, his voice assumes the simple rise and fall of these 
intervals, without the continuous flexure, in delivering those 
gayer and more energetic states of mind that naturally suggest 
a shorter time of syllables, and a more rapid pronunciation. 

If these then are the spontaneous and satisfactory efforts of 
the voice, on two such important points, it may be asked 3 why 
we should labor, so deeply in search of principles, that brought 
into practice, would be no more than the fulfilment of the 
instinct of speech. I have said, these points of intonation are 
accomplished by a good reader, if there can be a good or 
finished reader, without the educative means of science ; one to 
whom nature has given a mind, and sensibility, to assume the 
thought and passion of an author, and the vocal power to repre- 
sent them with propriety ; by one who, when he feels the 
uneasiness of error, will give even painful industry for its cor- 
rection ; and who, in his self-directed labors, is unconsciously 
following the order, and effecting much of the purpose of scien- 
tific analysis and rule. 

But how shall he find out, or preserve his way, who has not 
this native ' grace ' of improvement ; who searches after right, 
without knowing what is wrong ; and who copies both the faults 
and merits of an individual example, instead of reaching forth, 
under the direction of broad-founded precept, to gather excel- 
lence by discriminative selection. It is to such a person that 
a development of the constituents of speech becomes indis- 
pensable. To him the fulness of history, the strictness of defini- 
tion, and the diffusive light of system, afford those aids, which 
the eagle-eye of observation, and the sure-winged thrift of a 
well-provided and unincumbered intellect, in bearing itself from 
instinct, up towards science, may not essentially require. 



TIIE WAVE OF UNEQUAL INTERVALS. 351 

SECTION XXXI. 

Of the Wave of Unequal Intervals. 

This term denotes a vocal movement, by contrary flexures, 
with constituents of different extent. Thus, if the voice rises 
through a second, and then in continuation falls through a third ; 
or falls through a given interval and rises through a different 
one, it is called the Unequal Wave. 

It will at once be perceived j there is a direct and an inverted, 
a single and a double form of this wave ; but a consideration 
of the details of the several forms, as named in the Second 
Tabular view would be practically useless except their respec- 
tive expressions could be definitely assigned. But the recog- 
nized varieties of its expression bear a very small propor- 
tion to its multiplied species. It embraces wonder, positive- 
ncss, and interrogation, in different degrees, according to the 
extent of the interval and the direction of its last constituent. 
I cannot however, particularly ascribe to the forms of the une- 
qual wave, any expression, except that of strongly marked scorn, 
and other mental states of like character and force. Though 
these states are in a slight degree conveyed by the curling of 
the Equal wave, and even by the simple rising, and falling 
fifth, and octave, when much stress, or an aspiration is laid 
upon their vanishing extremes; yet the most striking sign 
of contempt, and of other related states, consists in a wide 
variation of the constituent intervals of the wave ; especially 
if tli" wave is double, with the intonation strongly aspirated, 
or with what shall be described hereafter, as the Guttural 
Vibration on its final concrete. 

This wave of unequal intervals is employed for the stronger, 
and generally exaggerated passions of the drama, and in tlie 
peevishness, and colloquial cant of common life; but it should 
be rarely used in the moderate temper of the greater part of 



352 THE WAVE OF UNEQUAL INTERVALS. 

elevated composition. It lias a vulgar earnestness, and a quaint 
familiarity, that render it adverse to a grave or graceful design 
of speech. 

When the expression of scorn is required on an occasional 
word, in a current melody of dignified or solemn discourse, it is 
under the direction of propriety and taste, generally made by 
stress and aspiration, on the simple rise or fall of the third or 
fifth ; for this conveys a more moderate degree of the passion ; 
at furthest, the expression is not to be carried beyond the aspi- 
rated structure of the single-equal wave. 

There is a peculiar expression of the unequal wave, described 
in the section on Chromatic melody, forming an exception 
to the general character of scorn, above ascribed to it. I 
refer to its employment for chromatic interrogation. In this 
case it is necessary to give, on the same syllable, both a plain- 
tive and an interrogative expression ; and this can be accom- 
plished, only by subjoining to the last constituent of the 
equal-direct wave of the semitone, or to the last constituent of 
its double-inverted form, the rise of the third, or fifth, or octave. 
But this, and other forms of the unequal wave, cease to be 
expressive of scorn, by withholding the aspiration, and the 
guttural vibration from their last constituent. 

The unequal wave may form the cadence of a chromatic 
melody, on one syllable. In this case the voice rises through 
the interval of a semitone, and then in continuation descends 
concretely a third or fifth to the close. This intonation how- 
ever, on account of its peculiar expression, is unsuitable to the 
general character of repose required in the cadence. From 
the character of its constituents, this form of the wave, particu- 
larly if enforced by stress, denotes the state of plaintive or queru- 
lous surprise : and consequently, is admissible on the last long 
quantity of a chromatic sentence, only when it conveys this 
state of mind. Should the stress be increased with an aspirated 
close, it would give the expression of querulous scorn. 

As all the forms of the wave especially require syllables 
of indefinite time, it is obvious j why long quantities are neces- 
sary for reaching full dignity of speech, since these alone are 



THE WAVE OF UNEQUAL INTERVALS. 353 

capable of bearing the wave ; dignity of expression being an 
effect of the wave of wider intervals, on gravely emphatic words, 
and of the wave of the second and semitone, in the respective 
currents of the diatonic and chromatic melody. With the light 
of this principle, the reader may see on "what defensible ground, 
it was formerly maintained, that the majestic movement of the 
first line of the second book of Paradise Lost, is shocked by 
the limited and insufficient quantity of the word state. 

High on a throne of Royal state which far 

All the accented syllables of this line, except state, are of 
indefinite time, and will bear the equal wave of the second. 
The same is true of nearly all the syllables in the three succeed- 
ing lines of the text : and with the exceptions here alluded 
to, the whole is admirably fitted, by its time, for the vocal 
representation of this magnificent description, by the Poet of 
unsurpassed Sublimity. 

From inattention to this subject of quantity, it often happens 
that poets use syllables of immutable time, in emphatic places 
that call for the expression of the wave. The following exam- 
ple, cited in the eleventh section, will now be better understood. 

And practis'd distances to cringe, not fight. 

The scornful exultation, conveyed by the words not fight, 
here requires a form of the unequal wave on each ; but from 
the limitation of their quantity, this movement cannot be 
employed, without a remarkable departure from correct pro- 
nunciation. 

In speaking of the various ascending and descending concrete 
intervals, it was shown that a similar, though diminished effect 
of intonation is produced by the leap or change of the voice, 
from the radical lino of a concrete, to the pitch of its vanish, 
without passing through the Intermediate space. Nou since the 
wave is only a junction of the concretes of its constituents^ it 
might he supposed thai some expression analogous t<> th 
of* n concrete wave, may he produced by radical changes to the 
extremes of its flexures. Such a correspondence may be 



354 THE WAVE OF UNEQUAL INTERVALS. 

effected on some of the forms of the wave. Thus in the case 
of the immutable words not fight, an approximation may be 
made towards the required expression of the continuous con- 
crete, by giving not, at a discrete fifth above the line of the 
current melody ; then returning discretely to that line on fight; 
and finally, rising on fight, from that line, with the rapid con- 
crete of a third ; thus producing a kind of discrete imitation of 
the direct-double-unequal wave of the fifth and third. For if 
we suppose the radical of cringe, to be on a line with the cur- 
rent melody j and its concrete to be carried from that radical 
place, through the points of the rising and falling discrete fifth 
above mentioned, it will, with a final rapid vanish of the third, 
form such a wave. This discrete intonation by a wider interval, 
comes much nearer to the expression of contempt, designed by 
the exultation of Satan, than can possibly be reached on the 
triad of the cadence, to which the voice is prone, in this case, 
from the short time of the syllables, and their position at the 
close of a sentence. 

Another example, given in the eleventh section, may still 
further illustrate this design to convey by radical changes, 
though in a modified degree, the expression of a wave of equal 
intervals, when a limited syllabic time, renders its continuous 
or concrete movement impracticable. 

Faithful to whom, To thy rebellious crew ? 
Army of Fiends, fit body to fit head. 

The words here marked in italics, convey ironical admiration, 
contempt, and scorn, and should be intonated by an alternate 
skip of radical pitch through the rise and fall of a fifth. That 
is, with fit on the line of the current melody, take bod, by 
radical skip, a fifth above fit ; y again at the current line, a 
fifth below bod ; to, also on the current line ; fit a fifth above 
this last ; and finally head a fifth below, at the current line : 
observing, that with the radical skips, there is still a feeble and 
rapid downward concrete of the same interval, on all the sylla- 
bles. I offer in the following diagram, two notations ; one of 
the discrete changes proposed for the Poet's phrase ; another, 



THE WAVE OF UNEQUAL INTERVALS. 355 

with the same number of words taken, as well as I could com- 
pose them, to represent something like the character of the 
Poet's short-timed phraseology ; and with sufficient quantity to 
bear the concrete, and the wave. 

Fit bod— y to fit head. Well paired with all thy sins! 



-*r%r 



E£Z3=3 



<>r- i -«^'l 



The First of these notations is described above : though here 
the rapid downward concrete of the third is, by a mistake, put 
for the fifth. In the Second, the word well has the inverted 
wave of the fifth, with its rising constituent, expressive of a 
sort of admiration, ironical it must be, at Satan's preposterous 
claims to an honorable faithfulness. I say nothing of a slight 
tremor on this rising constituent, to show the exulting scorn of 
Gabriel j nor of any form or degree of quality and stress, for 
the impressive display of the whole phrase. After the lighter 
sneer has thus been intimated, the rest of the words convey a 
positive assurance on the part of the speaker, of the truth of 
the contemptuous comparison, and should therefore have the 
conclusive intonation of the downward intervals. Paired lias 
the falling fifth ; with, the feeble and falling rapid concrete of 
a third, on the line of the current melody ; all, a positive down- 
ward fifth, from the hight of that interval above the current ; 
thy, a direct unequal wave of the second and third ; and sins, 
a feeble cadence to close the phrase. Now in all this, there is 
but the plain intelligible up and down of the voice without 
assistance from any occult quality, emanating from that soul 
of the Elocutionist, which has never yet been seen, Scented, 
touched, tasted nor heard. In the first of these ways only, that 
is by marking the extremes of those intervals, which, upon 
extended syllabic quantity would be given as a wave, can that 
open eye of wonder, and snarling of scorn, be substantively 
executed. Yet even with every assistance from the radical 
skip, a reader, if he possesses the power of an educated elocu- 



356 THE WAVE OF UNEQUAL INTERVALS. 

tion, must still find it vexatiously restrained within these 
words. 

We have had occasion to apply the term simple to the un- 
fiexed concrete, to distinguish it from the wave. The above 
example of intonation on immutable syllables, suggests the 
antithetic use of the terms, concrete, and 3 inconsistent as it 
may appear 3 discrete wave. 

It has been shown, that in the purposes of speech, two forms 
of the simple concrete, the slow and the rapid, are respectively 
required for long and short quantities. It was early a question 
with me, whether a rapid movement, through the wave, is dis- 
cernable on an immutable syllable. Time and motion together 
with matter, are the great agents, in perpetual creation ; and 
in their labors, strive at the greatest and the least ; but are 
still respectively as untraceable in their minuteness, as illimita- 
ble in their broad extension. There is then nothing inconsistent 
with their functions, in the idea that an instantaneous and per- 
fect movement of the wave, may be executed on the shortest 
syllabic quantity. Yet to me it is not obvious : and though I 
would not, with the scholastic axiom, say 3 there is no logical 
difference between the imperceptible, and the 'non-existent ;' 
still, by inference, the wave that cannot be heard, must be 
useless in speech. I leave the question therefore, not for the 
endless disputes, but for the observation, and for the determi- 
nate Christian ' yea or nay ' of others. 

Let me here recall the attention of the reader to the subject 
of syllabication. It was shown, that the construction of sylla- 
bles is governed by the radical and vanishing movement ; that 
the course of syllabic sound is limited by the extent of the 
upward and downward concrete ; and further stated that the 
prolonged and perfect syllable is practicable upon another form 
of pitch. We are now prepared to hear that the unbroken 
current of the voice, may be carried through the contrary 
flexures of the wave, on tonic and subtonic elements, without 
destroying that singleness of impression which forms one of the 
characteristics of a syllable. 

This may be briefly explained by what was said on the subject 






RECAPITULATING VIEW OF MELODY. 357 

of the alphabetic elements. The wave is a continuous sound, 
and consequently affords no opportunity in its course, for the 
outset of a new radical, which, with its following vanish would 
produce another syllable. For it was shown that an interrup- 
tion of the concrete, whether made wilfully by pause, or neces- 
sarily by the occurrence of an abrupt or an atonic element, is 
unavoidably the end of one syllable, and the preface to the 
beginning of another. 



After the description, thus far given of the individual func- 
tions of the speaking voice, we may take a more comprehensive 
view of the subject, by Recapitulating the account of these 
functions, as they appear in the connected current of discourse ; 
and thereby show them in the joined relations of synthesis, as 
well as in the separate individuality of decomposition. 

We speak with two purposes. First, to communicate ideas, 
or thoughts, apart from passion. And Second, to express ideas 
and thought with passion. According to that difference, the 
voice should have a different set of signs, for each of these pur- 
: and this, upon inquiry, is found to be the case. As it 
is difficult, if not impossible, to draw a strictly dividing line 
between simple thoughts, and what are called passions ; so the 
vocal signs, severally representing them, cannot be clearly 
divided, in arrangement. I have however, in previous parts of 
this essay, marked out a practical distinction, founded on the 
more obvious difference of the cases. For the plain narrative of 
unexcited thought, we employ the Diatonic melody. 

This melody, consists of the simple concrete rise of a second 
or tone, varied by the simple downward concrete of the same 
interval ; of a radical pitch changing through its several dia- 
tonic phrases ; with an occasional emphasis of force or abrupt- 
1 1 < - — . aa the sense requires ; and a termination of the melody by 
the descent of the cadence. The grace and refinement of speech 
in this case, is largely dependent on that equable-concrete 
structure of the radical and vanish, which displays a full and 
well-marked opening of the concrete, and a gradual diminution 



358 RECAPITULATING VIEW OF MELODY. 

of its force. These are the constituents employed, and this 
their disposition, for narrative, and plain description : and 
generally, if such subjects, as the definitions of astronomy, title- 
deeds of property, and gazette advertisements, are not read for 
the most part, in this style of intonation, the effect will be 
unsuitable to their passionless thoughts. 

In the above described condition, or first form of the diatonic 
melody, the movement is supposed to be with a tripping step 
and a short quantity. If however, the state of mind should be 
more serious and composed, an increase of quantity in the 
accented syllables, together with a general slowness of utterance 
will be assumed : the concrete still continuing in its simple rise 
or fall : thus making another condition of the melody, though 
still purely diatonic. 

Should this deliberate state be further raised into solemn 
dignity, the melody will assume, on extendible and emphatic 
words, the use of the direct and inverted wave of the second, 
together with an occasional rising or falling third or fifth or 
their waves, and some moderately expressive form of the other 
modes. Here then, the thoughtive and the passionative charac- 
ters meet, and produce what we called the reverentive or sen- 
timentive style. Much of the Church-service should have this 
plain and yet remarkable intonation. It conveys in full the 
mental state of august composure, solemnity and veneration. 
A proper management of the contrary courses of its waves, 
together with an occasional radical skip, of a third or fifth on 
immutable syllables, gives sufficient variety to the melody ; 
while it avoids the effect of unusual force and of more impres- 
sive intervals, that would overrule the self-possessed ease and 
grave simplicity of this unobtrusive utterance. This form of 
melody includes the means for producing that graceful dignity 
of voice, which is in vain attempted through the breadth of 'o's 
and ' aw's in mouthing ; through strong percussive accents with 
long pauses j the waves of wider intervals 3 and that heartless 
affectation which passes without motive or rule, in unexpected 
transition from the strongest cushion-beating emphasis, or 



RECAPITULATING VIEW OF MELODY. 359 

stage vociferation, to the attempted significancy of a mysterious 
whisper. 

Although the melody of speech is thus represented as consist- 
ing, exclusively of the concrete second or tone, severally, under 
a short and a longer quantity, constituting the purely diatonic ; 
and again as consisting of the waves of the second, with the 
occasional use of some other forms of voice, constituting the 
Reverentive ; yet in any case, we are to consider the diatonic 
melody as the general ground, on which the forms of all the 
modes of intonation, time, quality, abruptness, and force, are 
to be employed for the higher degrees of emphasis and expres- 
sion. And this brings us to the division properly called, Pas- 
sionative. 

This passionative style expresses the most vivid and energetic 
state of mind, commonly called Passion, under all its degree?, 
from the sentimentive, to that of the highest mental excitement. 
Its signs are taken from the most impressive forms of the five 
modes of the voice. But these impressive signs are only applied 
occasionally to emphatic words and phrases ; and not so gene- 
rally as the second in the diatonic current. Though even this 
is frequently broken by some expressive interval. Thus show- 
ing, what has more than once been stated, that we cannot 
draw a strict line of separation between the intermingling styles 
of melody. It will be shown, in a section on the Drift of the 
voice, to what extent, phrases and sentences of expressive in- 
tervals may be introduced. 

The distinction between diatonic and passionative speech is 
of such ruling influence, that we may again draw particular 
attention to it. 

In the act of Reading and Speaking, there has been, with the 
greater part of us, so promiscuous a mingling of all the forms 
and varieties of the modes of the voice, without regard to what 
we now know to he a natural and necessary distinction between 
the though tive and the passionative states of mind, and between 
the signs which respectively denote them ; that it is difficult, at 
first, not only to perceive the difference of these two sets of 
signs, but even to bring the mind to allow, there can or ought 



360 RECAPITULATING VIEW OF MELODY. 

to be this appropriate distinction. When however, attention is 
once awakened by classification and nomenclature, the dif- 
ference becomes marked and habitual with an instructed ear. 
But how is this to be recognized by him who has not the oppor- 
tunity of being directly taught the difference in the two cases ? 
It may be done indirectly, through the usual perceptions of his 
ear. Certainly, no one who has given the least attention to the 
elocution of the Stage j or indeed to any other elocution, and even 
to conversation j can have failed to perceive the difference, though 
he never named it, between a deliberate, grave, and dignified 
utterance, and one of a plaintive, querulous, interrogative, or 
lively character. Now the former is the narrative, diatonic, or 
thoughtive, and the latter, the sentimentive or passionative 
style. Let the pupil then imitate these so widely different 
styles of speech, until they become familiar to his ear, and 
under the discriminative command of his voice ; and with a 
knowledge of the intervals of the scale, he will perceive, that 
as far as regards intonation, the narrative, thoughtive, and dig- 
nified utterance, consists of the simple rise or fall of the 
second, on the short 3 and of the waves of the second, on the 
longer syllables. When he is familiar with the audible effect 
of this plain diatonic melody, he will begin to recognize the 
state of mind that attends it : and then the whole difliculty of 
discrimination will be overcome : for it will be found, there is 
as clearly a consciousness of this thoughtive state of mind, as 
there is a consciousness of that of passion. Thus when the 
natural association of thought with vocal sign is not overruled 
by false expression, this plain thoughtive state of mind will call 
up the plain diatonic melody, as an excited state of mind w T ill 
call up the passionative style of melody. With attention to this 
natural law, there will be a readiness in executing the plain, as 
contradistinguished from an expressive intonation, without a 
confusion of their respective purposes, as we hear it, in the 
great majority of readers. If I may state my own case, I do 
not, on an occasion for using the plain melody, direct my atten- 
tion especially to each of the rising and falling seconds, and 
the waves that constitute it : but having previously learned the 



RECAPITULATING VIEW OF MELODY. 301 

detail on which the distinction of style is founded, I bring up, 
or affect, or find myself in, the thoughtive state of mind ; and 
from the instinctive operation of mind on speech, I do not, or 
cannot without violence to my natural or acquired Elocution, 
speak in any other way. 

There is one expressive interval of the scale j the Semi- 
tone, sometimes employed on single words, and expressing com- 
plaint, pity, tenderness, or supplication ; but more generally 
on phrases, and sentences, and throughout discourse. This is 
called the Chromatic melody ; and like the two varieties of the 
Diatonic, its current is either in the rise or fall of the simple 
interval, for deliberate grief ; or in the equal wave of the semi- 
tone, under its direct and inverted, its single and its double 
forms, for a more prolonged expression. Some parts of the 
Church-service, containing words of complaint, penitence and 
supplication, call for this dignified wave of the chromatic 
melody. From the marked expression of the semitone, its 
melody never has the Thoughtive condition ; but is always 
either Sentimentive or Passionative. 

Other constituents contribute to the means of correct, ele- 
gant, and expressive speech. These were considered under the 
terms, Quality of voice ; Variations of radical pitch on its dif- 
ferent melodial phrases ; Pauses, with the proper intonation to 
be used at them ; and Grouping, or the means of impressing on 
an auditor, more definitely, the syntactic relation of words and 
phrases, by means of pause, emphasis, and the varieties of time 
and force. 

This summary includes the constituents thus far enumerated, 
which enter into the composition of melody. Some important 
functions, yet to be described, will furnish us with other expres- 
sive signs. 



24 



362 THE INTONATION OF 

SECTION XXXII. 

Of the Intonation of Exclamatory Sentences. 

The downward concretes, and the wave, are variously ex- 
pressive of surprise and admiration ; and as these, with like 
states of mind, are represented by what is called Exclamation, 
I shall point out some of the principles that seem to govern the 
use of these intervals, in Exclamatory sentences. 

Beyond a general admission of the existence, and of the 
expression of the i tones of the voice,' or what we call intona- 
tion in the Art of Speaking, this important function has, 
strangely, received no further notice of its forms and uses, than 
that vaguely signified by the common ' notes ' of Interrogation, 
and Admiration. But as these notes imply only some unde- 
scribed peculiarity of voice, without being employed according 
to system or rule, they can be considered as no more than 
grammatical symbols to the eye. The indefinite state of know- 
ledge, with regard to the intonation of these forms of speech 
has been further confused by the vague uses of their symbols. 
For we find the note of interrogation often applied to what are 
really interjective, or argumentative appeals ; and what, by the 
light of inquiry, may be shown to be strictly exclamatory. 

In the section on interrogative sentences, it was shown even 
in the questions there exemplified, that the downward inter- 
vals and the wave, are often necessary for partial, and occa- 
sionally for thorough intonation. Had the reader been pre- 
pared, by previous description of the character of these forms 
of pitch, it would there have been more particularly shown 3 
that some questions with the grammatical form, are made 
altogether by these downward movements. He may therefore 
now be told, after what has been said of the positive expression 
of the falling intervals, that whenever a question grammatically 
constructed, employs altogether the direct wave, or the simple 



EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES. 303 

downward movement, the interrogative character is lost in that of 
the positive state of mind, which requires these adopted intervals. 

Interrogations which employ, exclusively, the downward 
intervals and the direct wave, are in their meaning, what we 
severally called -> Questions of Belief; and are variously 3 Ap- 
pealing, Argumentative, Exclamatory and Imperative ques- 
tions. 

In all these cases, except the imperative, there is a certain 
belief in the interrogator, of an expected acquiescence on the 
point of the question ; and our perception of this belief is 
founded on the facts, reasons, and influences, that affect the 
meaning of the question, and that are to be gathered from the 
action, or discourse ; constituting what we called the Collateral 
grounds of indication in a question. 

In the want, at this time, of a precise and divisional nomen- 
clature, we are obliged to take the term, Question of belief, 
with a latitude of meaning, between a simple intimation by the 
inquirer, of his knowledge upon the subject of the question 3 
and his full assurance that the answer must accord with the 
hopes and expectations which prompted the question. And wc 
learned in the seventeenth section, that the negative question 
varies in the degree of its belief, from the slightest assumed 
idea, to the fulness of a triumphant inquiry : while it employs, 
according to that degree, the various forms of a partial interro- 
gative j with a wider downward interval, and a wider direct 
wave. But the questions reserved for this section, imply their 
belief, to a degree that calls universally, for a thorough and 
positive downward intonation. 

I have therefore included the four above named species of 
interrogation under the present head of Exclamatory Sentences ; 
for these require the same downward forms of pitch. It will be 
difficult however, to draw a precise line of separation between 
the pure interrogation of the rising intervals, and the gramma- 
tical question with a downward positive movement. And though 
we may not be able to make the points of their near resem- 
blance, a matter of exact discrimination, we may still describe 
and arrange their manifest distinctions. 



364. THE INTONATION OP 

The Appealing Question. In this interrogatory, the state 
of mind of the speaker is in most cases, that of positive convic- 
tion. For no one ever appeals, but with the expectation of 
judgment in his favor. The appeal is put in a questionary 
form, either with a persuasive deference, or with cunning 
sophistry, as a leading idea towards the required decision. 
Now the real or the feigned belief of the interrogator produces, 
in questions of this kind, the same downward intonation which 
positive assertions require. I say the reference of these ques- 
tions is made, rather for a confirmatory, than for an unbiased 
decision ; and this is more clearly exhibited in the forms of 
poetical appeal to the will of Heaven. For this implies the 
highest assurance on the part of the interrogator. Thus in the 
fourth act, and second scene of Julius Ccesar, Brutus says j 

Judge me ye Gods! Wrong I mine enemies! 
And if not so, how should 1 wrong my brother! 

Here are two appealing questions, not addressed in the doubt 
of inquiry, and with anxiety for a reply, but with the full 
expectation of a favorable answer. The words in italics there- 
fore properly require throughout, the downward intonation ; 
for in truth, the sentences are exclamatory. 

There is a fine example of this question, in Samlet ; where 
the Prince comes upon the king, at prayer, after his penitent 
soliloquy. 

Now might I do it, pat, now he is praying; 
And now I'll do't ; and so he goes to heaven: 
And, so, am I rev* 



The last line is an appealing question of belief, to the speaker's 
own sense of retributive justice. The intense seriousness of 
Hamlet, does not allow this question to take the more cheerful 
intonation of the rising intervals ; but calls for the gravity of 
a strong downward expression, which may be applied in this 
manner. With a slight pause after and, and so, give to the 
first of these words, a forcible emphasis of the falling fifth, or 
octave ; and to the second, a direct wave, of either of these 
intervals ; the rest of the sentence having a downward intona- 



EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES. 3G5 

tion, with the tripartite cadence, and a strong emphasis on am 
and on venged. Hamlet satisfies himself, that sending the king 
to heaven, by killing him at prayer, would not be revenge, but 
1 hire and salary,' on his part j and grace and ' salvation' to the 
king. And the positive belief on this point, directs his ques- 
tion ; And, so, am I revenged ? And, is here to be taken as 
an illative particle; so, as an ellipsis, for 3 by so doing. The 
meaning of the passage may then be amplified thus : Now, 
might I do it (kill him) ; and now (while he is at prayer) I'll 
do't ; and so (by hilling him at prayer) he goes to heaven. 
And so, (but by so doing) am I revenged ? or, (by so doing am 
I, therefore revenged ?) This full phraseology requires no 
special aid from intonation, to show the thoughtful vengeance 
with which Hamlet questions the connection between cause and 
consequence, and thus justifies his appeal. When the sentence 
is reduced to its textual brevity, the emphasis of a positive 
intonation is necessary to assist the grammatic feebleness, if 
not to clear up the obscurity of the elliptical construction.* 

*The 'Acting Drama' always omits this Scene of Hamlet. It must have 
been intended by Shakspeare, though its time is not yet come, to be a fine occa- 
sion for two accomplished Actors : and when education shall take the place of 
jealous 'Genius,' two, and many more, will act safely, if not kindly together. 
But the Theatre, under its present, I would say System of elocution -> if it had 
one^ can with all its conjurations, draw-down from the firmament of 'Histri- 
onic Inspiration,' only rays enough, in its nightly wants, to form one solitary 
Star; which is at once made stationary in its powers, by becoming the sole cen- 
tre of admiration and applause. And then the Poet, by eking out barely one 
character for his Piny, having fallen down to this poverty of the Stage ; and 
suiting his ideas and words to the Actor, they have both agreed to travel 
together, for a joint support. 

A system of any kind, that can furnish only one great Leader in its affairs, 
whether of thought or action, must be a bad, a wrong, or a very imperfect sys- 
tem ; since it proves the Master to be but an Accident ; and an accident hap- 
pening within a rule must always be either an oddity or an imperfection. A 
good system makes the intellect and the hand equal, among the studious and 
competent ; or, under a brotherhood of knowledge and principles, allows a dif- 
ference only in their degrees of excellence. We have numbers without number, 
of Geometers, Arithmeticians, Chemists, Mechanics, and even common Work* 
men^ and we hope that hereafter, there may be, in the world, more th&O one 
great Actor at a timej all respectively, of educated intelligence and skill in 



366 THE INTONATION OF 

The Argumentative or Conclusive question. The object of 
this question is not inquiry ; for it is generally addressed upon 
data, that make the phrase, though grammatically an interro- 
gation, rather a logical conclusion from premises admitted or 
proved. Thus Antony, over the body of Caesar, says 3 

He hath brought many captives home to Rome, 
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill: 
Did this in Ccesar seem ambitious! 

Or as more strongly marked in this : 

You all did see that on the Lupercal, 

I thrice presented him a kingly crown, 

Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition ! 

These arguments, for so they may be called, though addressed 
in the words of a question, certainly cannot be received with 
their strictly grammatical meaning. The meaning is really 
inferential that Caesar was not ambitious. In short, these cases 
belong to what might be figuratively termed an interrogative 
syllogism, of that species which logicians call an Enthymeme, 
or an argument of two propositions only, the minor and the 
conclusion, thus : 

Caesar thrice refused a kingly crown ; 
Therefore Csesar was not ambitious. 

their arts, and nearly equal among themselves ; the necessary result of undis- 
puted, and uniform methods of demonstrative instruction. While in the ever- 
contentious systems of Reasoning, Law, Government, Morals, Medicine, Elocu- 
tion, and Religion, there is still held up to us, the inimitable mastership, and 
solitary glory of Socrates, Aristotle, Alfred, Mango Capac, Washington, Gar- 
rick, Louis the Fourteenth, Esculapius, Luther, and Mahomet! ! 

Whenever time shall fumigate the mind from such notions as^ ' familiar spirit,' 
'favored of the gods,' ' Caesar and his fortunes,' the Shakspeare-mould of 
' genius,' which broke under its first casting, those miasmata of typhus fatality 
to emulative efforts 3 and shall set physical science plainly to survey the simple 
process of cause and effect in the human intellect, then and not till then, will 
we see clearly all such monopolizing ascriptions, in their ambitious, delusive, 
factitious, and distracting light. 



EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES. 367 

The syllogism being completed by the addition of its major 
proposition, thus : 

An Ambitious man -would not refuse a kingly crown ; 
But Ccesar thrice refused a kingly crown, 
Therefore Ccesar was not an ambitious man. 

Such being the positive character of these phrases, it follows 
from the rules we have laid down, that they should receive an 
impressive intonation of the wider falling intervals ; the very 
opposite to those which denote interrogation. 

According to the present method of reading, by confusing the 
ordained laws of the voice, and thereby corrupting its practice, 
these questions might be given with a thorough application of 
the rising intervals. But in this case, the intonation would be 
apt to assume the sneering expression of the double-direct or 
single-inverted wave, and thus, by its ironical effect, to endue 
the inquiry with the force of a real negation. 

And here our history points-out one of the many relations, 
discoverable between the arts of logic, grammar, and rhetoric, 
and that of elocution ; or, between all the states or the pur- 
poses of the human mind, and the vocal means for denoting 
them. It has been shown, that the words in italics, of the 
above examples, are in meaning, positive declarations of belief 
in a fact ; which by a figure of speech, is conveyed in the form 
of a question : and questions are generally taken as words of 
doubt. Consequently in cases like the above, where the voice 
has a positive meaning, it should be able to annul the usual 
power of the grammatical question. The means for effecting 
this, is by the use of the most emphatic degree of the downward 
intervals; for their expression is furthest removed from that 
of the rising interrogative voice. And this instance may serve 
to pre-signify the kind of vocal and grammatical contrariety, 
which the future cultivators of elocution will be called upon to 
analyze, and to reconcile, by the extended powers and resources 
of their art. Tims strictly, every proposition of a syllogism 
must either affirm, or deny. No question of real inquiry can 
therefore, form part of the process of logical reasoning; since 



368 THE INTONATION OF 

it neither affirms nor denies. Yet see, in the above cases, how 
the voice breaks through this law of the school, and almost of 
the mind, by its overbearing intonation 3 and endues an unde- 
termined grammatical inquiry, with the assumed power of a 
positive belief. 

The Exclamatory Question. The appealing question, it was 
stated above, is exclamatory ; and conversely, it may be said 
here, the exclamatory question embraces an appeal. The only 
ground for distinguishing them is, that the exclamatory phrase 
appears to be further removed from the condition of a question, 
than the appeal, by its seeming the less to require an answer. 

In Shakspeare's Richard II, the King, in that celebrated 
descant on the state of princes, says 3 

I live with bread like you, feel want, taste grief, 

Need friends; subjected thus, 

How can you say to mej I am a King! 

The interrogative words in italics do not require an answer, 
for, when interpreted by the two preceding lines, they contain 
reproof, displeasure, surprise, and conclusive denial, but not 
inquiry ; and therefore are properly expressed by the use of 
the downward concrete, and the direct wave. 

Perhaps the reader may think 3 the Exclamatory question 
does not differ from the Appealing, or at best, only in degree. 
I am but the historian of my tongue and ear. After I have 
told all they tell me, the reader may, and I suppose will, think 
as he pleases about it. 

The Imperative Question. This, though bearing a positive 
intonation, is not, as above remarked, a question of belief, but 
takes its downward intonation from its own peculiarity. There 
is such a thing as overbearing impetus in passionative, as well 
as in physical momentum ; whereby the expression, appropriate 
to one mental condition is carried into another, which under 
different circumstances would not admit of that expression. 
The intonation of an imperative question, seems to be of this 
character ; for there are here two states of mind in the speaker 3 
Command and Inquiry ; and these are in immediate connection 






EXCLAMATORY SEXTEXCES. 369 

with each other. But the zeal of the question is exhibited in 
the vehement desire for an answer, and this desire displays 
itself in the earnest authority of command. By this transfer, 
the command assumes all the energy of the case ; and seeming 
to forget, if I may so illustrate the subject, the rising expression 
due to the question, throws the positiveness of the downward 
imperative over the whole. This is exemplified by Macbeth's 
consultation with the witches. 

Witches. Seek to know no more. 

Macbeth. I will be satisfied. Deny me this, 

And an eternal curse fall on you. Let me know, 
Why sinks that caldron! and what noise is this! 

The eagerness of Macbeth here rises into anger, at the 
prospect of disappointment. This anger assumes the command, 
in the phrase 3 let me know ; and the strong downward intona- 
tion of this command is, by the imperative force, continued 
throughout the two succeeding questions. The intelligent 
reader will, on trial, at once admit the propriety of this posi- 
tive intonation, however he may explain it ; for let him, after 
the angry command, immediately give to the questions the 
rising intervals of interrogation -> and not only will there be a 
want of appropriate gravity and force, but the violent contrast 
of expression, will be even ludicrous. Yet without the over- 
ruling of this imperative energy, the questions would take the 
interrogative intonation ; for they contain a real inquiry. 

In the above instance, the question contains the previous 
command ; where it is wanting, we are to understand the 
phrase ; tell me, or some equivalent imperative. 

Perhaps one of the reasons why the class of questions, now 
under consideration, drop their proper interrogative intonation, 
may be that the phrase expressed or understood, sufficiently 
indicates the inquiry; and thus allows the associated command 
to thoroughly assume the downward interval. 

There are other states of mind, requiring the downward 
intervals, embraced in a grammatical interrogation. But per- 



370 THE INTONATION OF 

haps I have given examples enough on this subject, to furnish 
means for an analysis and classification of all its forms. 

Upon the subject of the common Note of interrogation, we 
may remark, that as most questions are signified by their gram- 
matical structure, and as this symbol, gives no special rule for 
intonation, it may be regarded as useless, except in declaratory 
questions, and phrases that without it might be mistaken for 
imperatives. In these, the mark placed, as long ago proposed, 
at the beginning of the question, would be definite in its pur- 
pose, from such sentences always requiring the rising intonation. 
That the common interrogative indication of this symbol, may 
confuse a reader who attempts to direct his voice by it^ is a 
fair conclusion from its being applied to sentences which require, 
as we have now learned, a totally different intonation. 

Having then in the present, and in a former section, con- 
sidered the various kinds of interrogation, that severally require 
either the upward or the downward intervals, let us briefly re- 
capitulate them. First. Questions, in their grammatical con- 
struction, are Declarative, Common, Adverbial, Pronominal, 
and Negative. 

Second. In their meaning, they are of Real Inquiry $ of 
Belief j and Triumphant questions. In their degrees of force, 
they are moderate, earnest, or keen ; while they may embrace 
astonishment, plaintiveness, mirth, raillery, anger, contempt, 
and in short, states of mind, not inconsistent with that of a 
question. These variously require, in their respective charac- 
ters, forms, and degrees, either the partial, or the thorough, 
rising intonation ; or a downward interval, or wave, intercurrent 
with the rising intonation : and properly belonging to our 
seventeenth section, are there particularly described. 

Third. With a Thorough downward intonation, they are 
Appealing, Argumentative, Exclamatory and Imperative ; 
and there may be others of a like character, deserving a name ; 
all of which, from having the same thorough downward intona- 
tion, we have included under the present head of Exclamatory 
sentences. In truth, these are called questions, by a figure of 
speech, which takes the interrogative construction, for an inter- 



EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES. 371 

rogative meaning. But in them, this meaning is lost, under 
the vocal signs of a downward concrete, and a direct wave, 
which I shall now proceed to show proper Exclamations require. 



Many exclamations may be regarded as elliptical sentences. 
The design of these broken phrases is to give a forcible picture 
of thought or passion ; and as this is done with a brevity of 
style, which sometimes might not clearly convey these several 
states, it is necessary to employ the additional means of intona- 
tion. And hence arise the structural form and the expressive 
character of Exclamations. 

The shortest exclamatory, like the shortest interrogative sen- 
tence consists of a monosyllabic word ; and this may be any of 
the parts of speech, if perhaps we except the article, conjunc- 
tion and preposition ; the interjection being the most common. 
And here, as in the monosyllabic question, the power of intona- 
tion is remarkable ; for thus it seems to be the art of speaking, 
almost without words. From the monosyllable, exclamations 
vary in extent through degrees of the ellipsis, to the full syntax 
of a sentence ; though the greater part are abbreviated by 
the haste of passion. Exclamations might then be arranged 
according to their structure, as grammatically imperfect, or as 
complete. I shall class them according to their meaning. 

When it is said, exclamatory sentences generally, if not 
always, bear the falling intervals or the wave, it must be under- 
stood, that the extent of the interval is in proportion to the 
energy of the mental state. Thus the following interjective 
reflection, from its moderate temper, might require no more 
than the direct wave of the second, or semitone on 0, and the 
triad of the cadence, on the remaining three syllables. 

withered truth! 

While the energetic emphasis of Hamlet's revengeful exclama- 
tion at the atrocity of the King; 

villain, villain, smiling, damned villain! 



372 THE INTONATION OF 

should receive throughout, either by slow or rapid concrete, the 
deep and forcible descent of the octave. 

Of the many kinds of exclamatory sentences, I shall only 
notice, the Admiring, the Plaintive, the Scornful, and the Im- 
perative ; since these illustrate the several forms of intonation 
required by this impressive class of phrases. 

The Admiring Exclamation. Admiration is an earnest 
approbatory state of mind, felt at new and elevated perceptions 
or thoughts. This newness of objects, or of our thoughts upon 
them, involves in a degree, an inquiry as to their character 
and cause ; and thus seems to call for the use of the rising 
intervals. But this state has not the degree of force that 
requires a verbal or a vocal question; while there is in the 
character of Exclamation, a positive conviction of the rare import- 
ance of the object of Admiration. It is from embracing these 
two states of mind, that the admiring exclamation calls for the 
direct wave, or union of the rising and the falling interval ; the 
positive character of the exclamation, by the downward course 
of the last constituent, predominating over whatever inquiry 
may be indicated by the previous rise. Let us take as an 
example, the following description of the assembling of the 
fallen Angels at Pandemonium. 

So thick the airy crowd 
Swarm'd and were straightened ; till the signal given, 
Behold a wonder! 

Here the syllables liold and wond require the direct wave of 
the fifth, which their indefinite quantity freely admits. 

The Plaintive Exclamation. It was shown in the nineteenth 
section, in what manner a plaintive interrogation may be made, 
by a junction of the semitonic expression with the wider upward 
intervals. The plaintive exclamation is produced by a rise of 
the semitone continued into the descending third, or fifth, or 
octave, as the energy of the case may require ; thus consti- 
tuting a direct wave of unequal intervals. The unequal wave 
of the rising semitone and falling fifth is the proper intonation, 






EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES. 373 

for the accented syllables of the following plaintive exclamation 
of Macduff : 

Banquo, Banquo, 
Our royal master's murdered ! 

The Scornful Exclamation. It was said in the thirty-first 
section, that Scorn according to its degree, is expressed by the 
simple rise or fall of the wider intervals, or by the various forms 
of the wave, when made with an aspirated or a guttural voice ; 
the simple rise and the fall being appropriate to sneer ; and the 
wider waves, to the deepest contempt and execration. When 
therefore these states of mind are contained within short 
emphatic sentences, they produce what is here called the 
Scornful Exclamation ; as in the following, from the Merchant 
of Venice, 

Bassanio. This is signior Antonio. 

Shylock. How like a fawning publican he looks ! 

This last line will be properly expressed, if the syllables in 
italics receive the unequal wave of the rising fifth and falling 
octave, under a slight degree of guttural aspiration; and the 
rest of the sentence, the falling fifth, as a rapid concrete, with 
the like aspiration. 

The Imperative Exclamation. An imperative sense univer- 
sally requires a downward interval, or a direct wave. Other 
functions, such as stress, aspiration, and guttural grating, to be 
spoken of hereafter, serve to mark the degrees of force or 
authority in the command. The following exclamation of 
Macbeth to the Ghost of Banquo, requires the downward fifth 
or octave throughout ; according to the degree of energy the 
speaker may think appropriate to it. 

Hence horrible shadow, 
Unreal mockery hence ! 

We need not pursue this subject further. Exclamations are 
but forcible interjective expressions; and there maybe as many 
kinds, as varieties of passion and thought. Thus every mental 



374 THE INTONATION OF EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES. 

energy may be found in discourse, under the exclamatory form. 
Let others define and divide them. Perhaps the nomenclature, 
and examples here given, may assist the work of inquiry and 
classification : and when hereafter, Elocution shall be raised 
into a Science, and so cease to be, at least in intonation, no 
more than an animal instinct j all those things in the art, that 
can be to me subjects only of hopeful imagination, may, in the 
fulness of knowledge, be accomplished by others. 

Upon the subject of Interrogation, and Exclamation, it is to 
be remarked, that in some cases, emphatic distinction may 
require the use of a downward interval or a direct wave, among 
the rising intervals of partial interrogation ; and a rising 
interval, among the downward concretes and direct waves of 
exclamation. The contrasts of intonation in such instances, 
constituting one of the characteristics of what is called emphasis, 
or an impressive designation of single words. 

In reviewing our account of the opposite indications of these 
two, and of other important divisions of speech -> we perceive 
how they sometimes appear to cross and to contravene each 
other. The prevalent and cloudy system of Elocution^ and 
much more, our metaphysical and muddled philosophy of the 
mind, by resisting the clarifying influence of a strict observa- 
tion, still keeps us carelessly unconscious of the natural differ- 
ence between thought and passion, with their several vocal signs ; 
and thus prevents our exact perception, that their phenomena, 
though apparently, are in no way really, inconsistent with the 
purpose of their ordination. But so it is. And so perhaps, 
the self-contented philosophic world will have it. Just as in 
government, religion, morals, the social relations, and medi- 
cine 3 with all our majesterial boasts of power and progress 3 
we have not the knowledge, truth, logic, virtue, and honor, to 
save us from still prevailing confusion, dispute, and disaster 5 in 
our restless attempts to rectify these subjects of conventional 
trade, human ambition, and for all their pretended purposes, as 
yet of deplorable failure. 



THE TREMOR OF THE VOICE. 375 

SECTION XXXIII. 

Of the Tremor of the Voice. 

If the reader has borne in mind the explanations in the first 
section of this essay, he must be aware that the forms of pitch 
thus far described, are, severally, phenomena of the concrete, 
the discrete, and the chromatic scales. He has now to learn 
the means of expression derived from the Tremulous scale. 

The scale consists of a rise and fall through the whole com- 
pass of the voices by a more delicate exercise of that particular 
vibration in the throat, called in common language, gurgling. 
Although the Tremor has always been known as a vocal func- 
tion, it is here first analyzed, and its use and management in 
speech described. 

In our first section there is a general account of the Tremu- 
lous scale. We must now be more particular. 

It has been shown, that every effort of the voice is necessa- 
rily through the radical and vanishing movement ; and that the 
audible characteristic of the several intervals of the scale may 
be distinctly recognized by their effect, even on the shortest 
immutable syllables. 

Since then each of the tonic and subtonic elements does, in 
its shortest time, always pass rapidly through the concrete, it 
follows, that however quickly successive they may be repeated, 
each impulse must be a concrete interval. When therefore the 
tremor is made on any of the above named elements, either 
alone or in syllabic combination, and in this last case, it is still 
heard only on a single element 3 the successive constituent 
impulses of that tremor must each consist of an abrupt radical, 
and of a rapid concrete through some one interval of the scale. 
Let us, for brief and more precise description, call these im- 
pulses, or iterations, the Tittles: and the spaces between the 
tittles, here assumed to be equal, for so they seem to me, we 



376 



THE TREMOR OF THE VOICE. 



will call the minute tittelar skip or interval. Whether these 
skips here assumed as equal, are of the same extent, under all 
circumstances, and in every voice, it is not now necesary to 
inquire. Thus the tremulous scale is made up of a succession 
of tittles, each of which, like the common syllabic impulse, has 
its rapid radical and concrete pitch. Taking then, the concrete 
of the tittle, as a designation, there may be a tremor of the 
semitone, second, third, fifth and octave. That is, the concrete 
pitch of each successive tittle may rapidly rise or fall through 
those intervals respectively. In this case the tittelar skips are 
supposed to be on the same line of radical pitch. Yet it is easy 
to understand, that while the rapid concrete of these tittles is 
passing through its interval, the tittles themselves may, in their 
chattering radical skips, be carried upward or downward, 
through a part or the whole of the compass of the voice. These 
tittelar skips with the rapid concretes, are made in two ways, 
as in the following diagram j 




Where a given number of these skips are continued on one 
line of radical pitch : as in the first and second bars of the dia- 
gram ; the former, having the rapid concrete of the second ; 
the latter, that of a fifth. The third bar represents a line of 
skips, with a change by common radical pitch, through a 
second or tone ; and thus by iterations on a line, with a radi- 
cal change, by proximate, and it may be by remote degrees, 
the voice may in one manner, ascend through its whole compass, 
on the diatonic scale. 

In another manner, the ascent through the tremulous scale 
is made, by taking the radical of each tittle, successively, a 
minute interval above the last, as in the fourth and fifth bars ; 
the rapid concrete in the former being a third, and in the lat- 



THE TREMOR OP THE VOICE. 377 

ter, a fifth. Thus without the last described linear step by 
proximate or other degrees on the diatonic scale, but with a 
direct rise by tittelar skips the whole extent of the voice is tra- 
versed. We have no means for measuring the space between 
the tittles, in this direct manner of ascent. It cannot be a 
semitone. If it were, the tittelar intervals being all equal, the 
tittelar skips would in all cases, be plaintive ; whereas, it is so 
only when the concrete of the tittle is a semitone. And it may 
be inferred, that it is not greater than this interval : for if we 
make a tremulous movement through a major third, the number 
of tittelar skips, will exceed five ; which is the number of semi- 
tones included within the third. How much less than a semi- 
tone, the tittelar interval may be, we leave others experimen- 
tally to decide.* 

* Some one, it seems, has gone far beyond common perception in distinguish- 
ing such minute intervals: as I find the following statement under a note, on 
the nine hundred and twentieth page of a recent, comprehensive, able, and 
popular English "Work on Physiology. 'It is said that the celebrated Mme. 
Mara was able to sound one hundred different intervals between [within the 
limits of) each tone. The compass of her voice was at least three octaves, or 
twenty-one tones (notes) ; so that the total number of (minute) intervals was 
twenty-one hundred, all comprised (produced) within an extreme variation of 
one-eighth of an inch (in the glottis) ; so that it might be said that she was 
able to determine (that is accurately to execute, and as I understand it, to perceive 
the effect of) the contractions of her vocal muscles to nearly the seventeen-thou- 
sandth of an inch.' 

Here is, as to execution and effect, a most extraordinary power. If however, 
the Author, or the Contributor, who records the instance, and who appears to 
have read every treatise on the voice, but one$ would just look into our un- 
valued work, of which there is a copy in the British Museum, he might perhaps 
agree with us in the conclusion, that by the division of a tone into one hundred 
parts, the iteration of the tittles, by immediate rise or fall, being so close, they 
could only be heard, as a continuous or concrete sound. The greater tone of the 
scale is theoretically divided into nine parts, called commas; and as even this 
ninth part, in our belief, as well as in the words of Rousseau ' is to ears like 
ours, useless except in (theoretic) calculation:' what ear was it, perceived the 
fraction of a hundredth, and numerically followed it up or down in tremulous 
progression through a single tone ? 

Perhaps the present note may in part, illustrate what is said in the fifth sec- 
tion, on the groundless authorities, and careless conclusions, so common in vocal 
Physiology. 



378 THE TREMOR OF THE VOICE. 

What has been said of the ascent through the tremulous 
scale, is to be understood of its downward progress. But 
whichever of these courses the iterations may take, either by 
linear step, or by direct tittelar skip, the concrete of the tittles, 
as it appears to me, takes the same direction ; nor have I 
ever perceived, in the ordinary uses of the voice, that the itera- 
tions of the tremor j and the rapid concrete, move in directions 
contrary to each other. 

The tremor, then, consists of abrupt impulses, or tittles of 
momentary duration, separated by momentary discrete inter- 
vals ; the tittles having a rapid concrete of some interval of the 
scale, and skipping by very minute intervals, both in a rising 
and falling direction. 

That the tremor is so constructed, may be ascertained hj 
experiment ; for the tremulous iteration can be continued on a 
level line ; or carried upward or downward, by an alternate 
line and step of radical change on the diatonic scale ; or directly 
by tittelar skip, to the lowest audible pitch, and to the highest 
point of the falsette. And further, that the constituent tittles 
of the tremor, however momentary, have each an issuing rapid 
concrete interval, may be proved by trial ; for the plaintive 
effect of the semitone, will be heard on every part of the course 
of the tremor, through the whole compass of the voice. And 
in like manner the plain effect of the tone 3 and the interroga- 
tive expression of the third, or fifth, or octave, may be given to 
this rising tremor. Now as the tittelar interval is not a semi- 
tone, tone, or wider interval, but a very minute space, without 
any known expression, the expressive effect cannot be produced 
by this minute skip, but must be from a rapid transit of the 
concrete of the tittles through those greater intervals respec- 
tively. 

It was in reference to this peculiar progression, so different 
from the concrete movement 3 from the discrete steps of the 
diatonic scale 3 and from the purely semitonic succession of the 
chromatic, that I ventured, in the first section, to call this dis- 
crete and chattering variation of pitch, the Tremulous scale. 
It is scarcely necessary to add that the rapid concrete of the 



THE TREMOR OF THE VOICE. -)~^ 

tremor, from its momentary duration, is restricted to its simple 
rise, and fall : but the tittelar skip, besides the simple rise and 
fall by its minute interval, takes the course of contrary flexure 
into the wave. This wave of the tittelar course has all the 
form of the smooth concrete wave ; while the rapid concrete 
still accompanies the tittles throughout their winding progress. 

To those who think, we have unnecessarily distinguished 
abruptness from force, in our general arrangement 3 we must 
remark, that in the comparatively feeble, but instantaneous 
explosion of the tittle, there is, to me at least, an example of 
Abruptness, as an independent Mode ; and its peculiar voice 
gives here the essential and sole characteristic of this appa- 
rently exclusive radical function ; which does no more suggest 
the common idea of force and its uses, than an immutable syl- 
lable suggests the idea of long quantity, or a mathematical 
point, that of the continuation of a line. However it may be 
arranged, we practically maintain 3 that Abruptness is an im- 
portant function of speech, and elocutionists who have used it 
instinctively, will best fulfil their purposes, when assisted by 
analysis, nomenclature, and rule. 

The expressive power of the tremor, is shown in the func- 
tions of Laughter and Crying. 

The pure and wnarticulated act of Laughter consists in the 
use of the tremulous scale, both in its tittelar skips, and in its 
rapid concrete. Its rapid concrete may be any of the intervals 
of the scale, except the semitone and minor third ; while its 
tittelar skip may pass either by the step of the diatonic scale, 
or directly upward or downward, or in the chattering turn 
of the wave, through the whole compass of the voice. In speak- 
ing of the intonation of immutable syllables, it was shown, that 
the rapid concrete, though immeasurable directly, as an inter- 
val of the scale, is yet recognized by its characteristic effect : 
and the reader may practically apply the principle, in discrimi- 
nating the intervals used in laughter. 

When the concrete pitch is a tone, and the iteration is con- 
tinued on a level line, especially if that line is in the Lower 
range of pitch, the function may indeed bear the name of 



380 THE TREMOR OF THE VOICE. 

laughter j yet it will be only a phlegmatic chuckling in the 
throat. While the concrete is still in the tone, if the line of 
tittelar skips continuously rises and falls through a second or 
a third, thus forming what may be called a tittelar wave, the 
expression of the laugh will become more varied and sprightly. 
When the third or fifth is used in the concrete pitch, and the 
tittelar skips are carried upward and downward, as a wave 
through the wider intervals of the scale, it produces the gayest, 
and most vivid expression. 

Laughter is generally on one of the tonic elements ; but it 
may be executed on the subtonics, and even on the atonies in 
a whispering breath. On the atonies, its tittelar skip if I do 
not mistake, rises and falls, through the scale of whisper, 
described in the fifth section. It is made on all parts of the 
scale, within the compass of the voice, though it generally 
affects the falsette. Supposing the quality of voice to be given j 
laughter will be most agreeable, and varied, when it consists 
of a tremor of well accented tittles, distinctly separated from 
each other ; and passing, by tittelar skip, through simple 
intervals and the wave ; with a concrete pitch, moving in suc- 
cession, by simple rise and fall, through every interval except 
the semitone, and minor third ; the expression being still further 
varied by a swelling, or medium force, on the tittelar skips, 
as they pass through their waves. 

Crying is an ^articulated movement through the simple rise 
and fall of the semitone, and perhaps the minor third, or through 
the direct or inverted wave of these intervals. The act of cry- 
ing has two forms : it may be in the concrete, or in the tremu- 
lous scale. Infants, when they do not use the protracted note, 
cry in the first manner, with a prolonged semitonic wave, on 
some tonic element. It is a long time before the tremor is 
heard in their voice. The first step towards it, is in the convul- 
sive catch of sobbing. By degrees this increases in frequency, 
and the cry becomes thereby, at last composed of the iteration 
of the tremor. 

The tremulous function of crying, like that of laughter, con- 
sists of an iteration and a concrete. That is, the tittles, each 



THE TREMOR OF THE VOICE. 381 

with its issuing, and rapid concrete-semitone, or perhaps minor 
third, may successively ascend or descend through the whole 
compass of the voice, by the same kind of movement used in 
laughter ; for the plaintive expression in crying proceeds from 
the rapid concrete of the semitone, not from any course of the 
iterations ; since these, in the act of crying, may take their 
course through the wider intervals and waves. 

It sometimes happens that children while crying in the tremu- 
lous movement, do from some momentary change of passion, 
and without a cessation of the tremor, pass into laughter. Here 
a cheerful state necessarily produces a change of the concrete, 
from the semitone, or perhaps minor third, to the second, or 
other wider interval. And in a paroxysm of hysteria, the 
transition between these different means of gay and of plaintive 
expression, is so frequent and rapid, that the hearer is some- 
times at a momentary loss, to say which function is in opera- 
tion. In this case, a person may properly be said to laugh and 
cry in the same breath. 

The association of the semitone and perhaps the minor third, 
either in a simple-prolonged or in a tremulous form, with the 
state of distress is so close, that though the act of crying may 
have ceased, yet with a continuation of the distress, there will 
be a kind of mental hiatus in the attempt to return even to the 
diatonic intonation of speech.* There are persons, who, for 
the sake of sport or fraud, play the part of crying. If they 
are habitual mimics, and have flexible voices, they may perhaps 
succeed. But nature is always honest, while humanity, her 
intended, but too often false representative, is ever ready to 
deceive. Diplomatic Craft is so well aware, his lips may mar 
the underplots of his purpose, that he is obliged to guard the 
ruling passion by circumspection, or brevity, or silence. When 
mirth or sorrow is within us, it is hard to restrain its instinctive 
expression. lie who would be to the intelligent observer, an 

* Perhaps, some of my readers may recollect such a case having occurred 
to themselves, in childhood. 1 make the remark from my own experience, at 
that uncorrupted period, when instinct, as yet, had kept us all alike. 



382 THE TREMOR OF THE VOICE. 

unsuspected hypocrite in his voice, must mask even his thoughts 
and passions to himself. 

After the preceding account of the use of the tremor upon 
single elements, in the functions of laughter and crying, it is 
not difficult to /ore-hear the effect of its application to syllabic 
utterance in the current of discourse. 

"When the semitone, in the chromatic melody of speech, is 
given under the form of tremor, it enhances the plaintive effect 
of the simple concrete. For as crying expresses the highest 
degree of distress, its tremulous characteristic is applied to 
speech, to denote an excess of complaint and grief, and the 
ardor of tender supplication. Tremulous semitonic speech is 
the utmost practicable crying upon words. 

To engraft the tremor on a syllable, let the reader pronounce 
the word name, in a tremulous movement through the simple 
rise, or fall, or wave of the semitone. He will hear, the tremor 
equally on the tonic a y and on each of the two subtonic 
elements. 

The tremor on the semitone may give a plaintive expression 
to a single word : or that expression may be continued on 
occasional, yet limited portions of discourse. If this restricted 
application deserves a name, it may be called the Tremulous- 
chromatic melody. The following stanza, in which the tremor 
of age is supposed to be joined with that of supplicating distress, 
may, when read with the coloring of dramatic action, afford a 
proper example of this melody. 

Pity the sorrows of a poor old man, 

Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door, 

Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span ; 

give relief and heaven will bless your store. 

Here the tremor of the semitone may be applied to every 
emphatic syllable capable of prolongation, which is the case 
with all except those of pity and shortest : but even these may 
in a limited degree, receive it: for, it was shown formerly j 
particular purposes of expression occasionally allow a slight 
extension of quantity on immutable syllables, and unemphatic 



THE TREMOR OF THE VOICE. 383 

and unaccented words, that in dispassionate utterance, bear 
only the shortest time. 

The occasional use of the tremulous semitone upon individual 
words, will be noticed in the future section on Emphasis. 

When the tremor passes through the second, third, fifth, or 
octave, or through the wave of these intervals, it joins the 
mental state of derision, mirth, joy, or exultation to that of 
interrogation, surprise, command, or scorn, respectively con- 
veyed by the smooth concrete of those intervals. In short, it 
is a] tplying to speech, what is transferable from the function of 
laughter ; and it adds thereto all the meaning and force of its 
satisfaction. 

The tremor on wider intervals, and on the waves, is used 
principally for emphasis ; though in playful discourse, it is 
sometimes heard in continuation on more than one syllable, and 
occasionally even on short sentences. 

There is a use of this laughing tremor, as we may call its 
unarticulated execution on the second, third, fifth, and octave, 
which deserves notice. I mean its employment in that hysteri- 
cal exclamation, heard in exaggerated scenes of the drama. 
In this case, the laughing tremor seems to be strangely sub- 
servient to all species of expression : for there is scarcely an 
excessive degree of passion, whether of joy or suffering, in which 
it is not naturally, and may not with caution, be dramatically 
used. One can understand readily, why this vehement expres- 
sion by the wider intervals, should denote the excess of those 
states of mind, instinctively connected with laughter ; but it is 
not at once manifest why the signs of expression should be so 
misapplied, as to give the concrete tremor of the second or of 
wider intervals, to states that in cases of less excitement, 
properly receive the plaintive tremor of the semitone. Let us 
try to explain this seeming anomaly. 

The occasions on which this hysteric laugh is employed, are 
those of the highest possible intensity of distress. Now by tin- 
rule of plaintive expression, the tittelar iteration, and the rapid 
concrete semitone should be used; and with this the expression 
generally begin. But as the passion increases in vehe- 



384 THE TREMOR OF THE VOICE. 

mence, the voice is so far affected by its excess, as to dissever 
the instinctive association ; and, giving way to the habit of 
employing the wider intervals in keen and forcible expression, 
leaves the hampering concrete of the semitone, for the free 
expansion and piercing energy of the third, fifth, octave, double 
octave or more, in its concrete and tremulous forms. This is 
the reason why in hysteria, which is usually brought on by 
distress, or other congenial states of mind, the ordinary course 
of plaintive expression is overruled ; and while the more mode- 
rate forms of this nervous excitement are signified by the semi- 
tonic intonation, it sends forth its higher gusts, in the concrete 
scream and yell of the widest intervals and waves, mingled with 
a like exaggeration of its tremulous energy, in the wildness of 
an idiotic laugh : idiotic, because a motiveless and imbecile 
confounding of the laws of vocal expression. Although this 
hysteric expression may, when judiciously applied, be both 
proper and effective, in an extraordinary scene of the drama ; 
yet as it is generally accompanied with considerable grimace, 
is strongly impressive, and can be well heard in the remote 
corners of the Gallery, it is apt to be employed on the Stage, 
as a vocal trick ; especially by the Actress, who without per- 
ceiving its appropriate occasion, which is rare indeed, has yet, 
by ambitious practice, or nervous habit, a skilful command 
over its mechanical execution. 

It requires more than common facility of voice to perform the 
tremor with precision and elegance. Its full efficacy and grace- 
ful finish is accomplished, by giving it the greatest number of 
tittles of which the assumed interval is susceptible ; by making 
these tittles in fluent skips, with a distinct accent, with a ready 
progression through the simple interval and the wave, and with 
a median stress on the waves of these tittelar skips. It may 
be added, that the tittelar movement on long quantity, gene- 
rally in speech, and always in continued laughter, employs the 
wave. 

As this tittelar movement of the tremor is applied to all 
intervals both ascending and descending, and to the wave, it 
has under these applications, the degree and variety of their 



FORCE OF VOICE. 385 

several characters. On a downward interval of the fifth, the 
expression will be of a graver cast than on a rise of the same 
extent ; and on the rising second it will have less gayety than 
on the rising fifth or octave, or their waves. 

After the preceding view of the simple intervals, and of the 
tremor, the reader will perhaps be able to recognize, and with 
the anticipative resources of science, even to fore-hear the effect 
of their detailed combinations. If with all I have said, he will 
not do this for himself, it would be to no purpose to do it for 
him. It is an agreeable office to stand prompter to a pausing, 
yet a ready comprehension : but it is an irksome duty, to be 
obliged to push an unwilling intellect on to the last syllable of its 
part. 



SECTION XXXIV. 

Of Force of Voice. 

This Mode of the voice is subdivided into forms and degrees. 
These degrees, without much precision, are denoted in common 
language by the words, loud, soft, strong, and weak. Indefinite 
us the rule may be, yet taking common conversation as a divid- 
ing line between the strong and the weak, in speech, we might 
apply the terms Forte and Piano, as relative degrees severally 
above and below it. 

Force may be applied to phrases, or to one or more sen- 
tences, for the purposes of energetic expression. Or it may 
be limited to single words, to syllables, and to certain 1'arts of 
the concrete movement j to distinguish them from other avoids 



386 FORCE OF VOICE. 

and syllables, and from other Parts of the concrete. A detailed 
history of this limited application of force, will be given here- 
after. Under the present section, its use on phrases and sen- 
tences, is transiently noticed. 

Writers on elocution, and school books on the art of reading, 
give general rules for enforcing, and reducing the voice, in con- 
tinued speech. It is not necessary to swell the bulk of this 
volume, by transcribing them. We may however inquire, on 
what principle various degrees of force, are associated with the 
circumstances of the speaker, or with the state of his mind. 

From the wide reach of an intense exertion of the voice, 
there is an obvious propriety in its employment, when distance 
is pictured in discourse. The indication of nearness, on the 
contrary, is well expressed by an abatement of that force. 

Secrecy muffles itself against discovery by a whisper ; and 
doubt, while leaning towards a positive declaration, cunningly 
subdues his voice, that the impression of his possible error may 
be least exciting and durable. 

Certainty, on the other hand, in the confident desire to be 
heard, is positive, distinct, and forcible. 

Anger declares itself with energy, because its charges and 
denials are made with a wide appeal, and in its own sincerity of 
conviction. A like degree of force is employed for passions 
congenial with anger ; as hate, ferocity and revenge. 

All thoughts and passions unbecoming or disgraceful, smother 
the voice j with a desire to conceal even the voluntary utterance 
of them. 

Joy is loud, in calling for companionship through the over- 
flowing charity of its satisfaction. 

Bodily pain, fear, and terror, are also forcible in their 
expression ; with the double intention, of summoning relief, 
and repelling the offending cause when it is a sentient being. 
For the sharpness and vehemence of the full-strained and 
piercing cry are universally painful or appalling to the animal 
ear. 

In thus suggesting the reasons why certain degrees of force, 
are associated with certain states of mind, we have perhaps 



FORCE OF VOICE. 387 

ventured too far towards the presumptuous doctrine of Final 
Causes. And though we may have therein transiently strayed, 
let us not forget the duties of Philosophy. It is her office, first 
to inquire how things exist ; the knowledge of why they so exist, 
must be the last act of favor which time and toil will bestow. 
Our steps over the works of man, may go hand in hand with 
the comprehension of their final causes ; for the author can 
tell us the narrow purpose of their parts. But the great circle 
of accommodated final causes in nature, will be unfolded, only 
in the last recapitulating chapter of her infinite revelation. 

We defer for the present, the subject of force or stress on 
single words, and syllables, forming one of the constituents of 
Accent, and of Emphasis 3 to consider the remarkable applica- 
tion of stress, to different parts of the concrete syllable itself. 
By experiment we learn, that the varied effects of stress, are 
severally perceptible, on the beginning, the middle, and the end 
of the concrete movement, and when heard in immediate suc- 
cession at its two extremes ; that the same force may be so 
continued throughout the concrete, as to alter the characteristic 
feebleness of the vanish ; and that while the relative structure 
of the simple radical and vanish, remains the same, force may 
magnify proportionally the whole of the concrete. 

These stresses we severally name, the Radical, the Median, 
the Vanishing, the Compound, and the Thorough stress, and the 
Loud concrete, as in the following diagram 3 



^ 3 % 



lilt! 



where I have endeavored, visibly to illustrate the audible cha- 
racter of the forms of stress on the concrete, to be described in 



388 THE RADICAL STRESS. 

the six following sections. The reader is however to observe, 
that for the proper Radical stress, which is not here noted, the 
initial opening should be represented proportionally to the 
vanish, fuller and more abrupt than it is in the symbol of the 
simple concrete. 



SECTION XXXV. 

Of the Radical Stress. 

The Radical stress consists in an Abrupt and forcible utter- 
ance at the beginning of the concrete movement : and we may 
perceive, in the peculiar character, and expression of this 
important stress, a sufficient ground for considering abruptness 
a generic mode of the voice. 

The simple concrete, described in the second section, and 
here called simple, to distinguish it from its stressful forms and 
from the wave, is indeed represented in the above diagram, as 
having an initial fulness ; but the function now under considera- 
tion, is characterized by a more sudden explosion, at the first 
opening of the voice ; while the subsequent vanish is carried on 
in the diminishing structure of the simple concrete. There are 
so few speakers, able to give a radical stress, with this momen- 
tary burst, and therefore able to comprehend exactly, the 
description of it, that I must draw an example from the 
effort of coughing. A single impulse of coughing, is not in 
all points exactly like the abrupt voice on syllables ; for that 
single impulse is a forcing out of almost all the breath ; which 
is not the case in syllabic utterance : yet if the tonic element 
a-we be employed as the vocality of coughing, its abrupt open- 



THE RADICAL STRESS. 389 

ing will truly represent the function of radical stress, when used 
in discourse. 

The clear and energetic radical stress must be preceded by a 
cessation of the voice. There seems to be a momentary occlu- 
sion in the larynx, or somewhere, to speak with caution, by 
which the breath is barred and accumulated for the purpose of 
a full and sudden discharge. This occlusion is more under 
command, and the explosion is more sudden, on syllables 
beginning with a tonic element ; or with an abrupt one, preced- 
ing a tonic ; for in the last instance, the articulative, if there is 
any difference between them, is combined with the vocal occlu- 
sion. When a syllable begins with a subtonic, or with an 
atonic which is not abrupt, the full degree of explosion is not 
practicable, as in manful, foster. If such words are pronounced 
with vehement stress, there is always an interruption of the 
voice after the initial element, as m or /, in the examples ;> to 
allow the succeeding tonic the full force of a radical explosion. 
This account may explain more particularly the part performed 
in intonation, by subtonic elements at the beginning of sylla- 
bles. It was said in treating of syllabication, that the subtonic 
does not always make a part of the concrete movement ; for 
should it have more than a momentary quantity, it is continued 
upon the same line of pitch, till the succeeding tonic opens with 
a proper radical, and then finishes the concrete. This occurs 
on most occasions ; for though it is possible to open a tonic 
with so feeble a radical, that it may seem absolutely to join 
itself with a subtonic, which has previously risen partly through 
the concrete, still there is so much of the abrupt fulness in the 
usual utterance of a tonic element, that it generally assumes to 
itself the first point in the interval. 

When an immutable syllable, beginning with a subtonic, is 
prolonged by oratorical license, it can be effected only in two 
ways. By continuing the subtonic on a level line of pitch, till 
the short tonic opening with its radical, completes the syllable, 
with its rapid vanish ; or by protracting the short tonic, at the 
note of song. Of these, the first changes least, the character 
of the syllable; but in each, there is a disagreeable drawling 



390 THE RADICAL STRESS. 

pronunciation. This may be exemplified on the element I in 
the words let and pluck, when so prolonged. We had some 
years ago, a Player, from abroad, with so many shocking faults, 
that the Town, unconsciously ironical, was all in an uproar 
about his extraordinary powers ; and who, when quantity was 
desirable on these immutable syllables, would, instead of yield- 
ing to that immutable fate 3 give an affected drawl to the sub- 
tonic element. I remember, the whole philosophy of this Actor's 
Histrionism was included in what he and his School called 
'Identity:' the meaning, or rather the empty mysticism of 
which, will be noticed hereafter. 

The power of giving a strong, full, and clear radical stress to 
a tonic element, is not a common accomplishment among 
speakers ; yet the free and proper management of this abrupt 
function is highly important in elocution. Its two principal 
purposes are 3 to contribute to the clearness of articulation, and 
to form the distinguishing accent and emphasis on immutable 
syllables. These syllables not allowing the slow concrete, and 
being incapable, as will be shown hereafter, of bearing the 
other forms of stress, the abrupt or explosive enforcement of 
the radical, apart from intonation and quality, is their only 
means for emphatic distinction. 

Having pointed out the instrumentality of the radical stress, 
in articulation, this is perhaps the place to consider the means 
for insuring the distinct audibility, and elegance of syllabic 
pronunciation. 

This subject has three divisions : the First embraces a con- 
sideration of the specific sounds, which the changeable decrees 
of human convention give to the alphabetic elements. The 
Second regards the subject of radical stress : and the Third, an 
appropriation of the several constituent elements of a syllable, 
to the concrete movement. 

The First of these matters is yet under the rule of any body : 
and until some extraordinary revolution with every body, is 
therefore very properly to be excluded from the discussions of 
a philosophy that desires to be exact and effectual in its instruc- 
tion. How can we hope to establish a system of elemental 



THE RADICAL STRESS. 391 

pronunciation in a language, when Great Masters in Criticism, 
and their whole School, condemn at once, every attempt in so 
simple and useful a labor, and so easy, when once taken 
gradually in hand, as the correction of its orthography. 

Supposing then the sound of the elements to be precisely 
what temporary authority has determined, the clearness of pro- 
nunciation will depend, in the 

Second case, on the effective execution of the radical stress. 
Although every element should be heard in the syllabic impulse, 
yet the tonic is generally the most remarkable in the com- 
pound. The characteristic of the syllable, therefore, lies, in a 
great measure, within this element ; and a full explosive radical 
stress upon it, contributes much to distinct enunciation. It is 
this which draws the cutting edge of words across the ear, and 
startles even stupor into attention ; this, which lessens the 
fatigue of listening, and out-voices the murmur, and unruly stir 
of an assembly ; and a sensibility to this, through a general 
instinct of the animal ear, which gives authority to the groom, 
and makes the horse submissive to his angry accent. Besides 
the fulness, loudness, and abruptness of the radical stress, when 
employed for distinct and forcible articulation, the tonic sound 
itself should be a pure vocality. When mixed with aspiration, 
it loses the brilliancy, that serves to increase the impressive 
effect of the explosive force. 

Third. The principles of syllabication, set forth in this essay, 
Bnggest additional means for effecting what is called distinct 
articulation. In order to insure a clear and striking utterance, 
the whole syllable should be not only sufficiently loud, but each 
elementary constituent, rejecting redundant elements, should be 
so « 1 1 - 1 : 1 1 < ■ t . a- to prevent the possibility of confounding sylla- 
bles, having the same tonic, yet differing partially or univer- 
sally in their Bubtonics. This is effected, by distributing the 
time and movement of the concrete, properly among the 
elements of the given syllable. This will be explained by a 
particular instance. I once heard the Actor, above alluded 
pronounce the word p&ft'n, by prolonging the voice on /. and 
then terminating the syllable, by a momentary transit on <n'n. 



392 THE RADICAL STRESS. 

And though in this case, I was clearly audible, yet the rapid 
flight and blending of a and n rendered the characteristic effect 
of the whole syllable both faint and confused. One of the con- 
sequences of this pronunciation, and it was a common fault with 
the popular Actor, was, that on turning his face from the 
audience while speaking, many of his words, though audible as 
inarticulate sounds, were unintelligible to an attentive ear, at 
medium distances in the theatre. A practice like this, obstructs 
the equable flow of the concrete, and overrules the proper 
apportionment of time to the constituents of a syllable. For 
when each element of plain, has its due proportion of time and 
of the concrete, the utterance of the whole word will be just 
and satisfactory. 

The principles of articulate utterance under this third head, 
may be exemplified in the following sentence : 

Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. 

Should we give emphatic importance to the word more, solely 
by the extent of quantity, and not by peculiarity of intonation ; 
and should this quantity be spread upon an unequal wave of 
the rising second and falling fifth, with a view to give a feeble 
cadence to the dignified extension of the word : then, in appor- 
tionment of the elements, if m be carried through the rise of 
the second, and continued downward through nearly the whole 
extent of a fifth, the o and r being rapidly made at its close j 
the articulation will be imperfect. But if the time of the wave 
be divided into three parts severally about equal, and the m, 
o, and r\ be respectively assigned to these parts, the word will 
have its just pronunciation. 

Many immutable syllables beginning with a subtonic, are, in 
the current of dignified utterance, particularly in the reveren- 
tive style, sometimes prolonged beyond the limit of their solitary 
or grammatical time. When this practice is assumed by ora- 
torical license j without a knowledge of this equalizing precept 
that should direct it 3 the added quantity is generally expended 
wholly on the initial subtonic. Thus if the syllables not, met, 
rock, lit, that, and vie, be unusually prolonged, there will be 



THE RADICAL STRESS. 393 

less departure from correct pronunciation, by giving the addi- 
tional quantity to the subtonics, than to the tonics. Still there 
will be a want of that distinctness by which a syllable is imme- 
diately recognized ; for syllables are known in part, by the 
habit of their quantity, both in the absolute time of the whole, 
and the comparative time of their constituent elements. Now 
in each of the above instances, the time of the several elements 
should strictly, be about equal, but by supposition, they are not ; 
for while the subtonic is unduly extended, the tonic and the 
following abrupt element have only their proper momentary 
duration. 

And this disproportionate time of the elements, here assigned 
as the cause of indistinctness in speech, is still more frequently 
a cause of inarticulate pronunciation, in the Singing voice. 

In the instances of the words plain, and more, the time of 
the concrete should be apportioned equally among the elements ; 
and this is necessary in the reverentive style, for the elegant 
and impressive utterance of other syllables, having a similar 
construction. Yet we cannot give a universal rule on this 
point ; since such indefinite syllables, as men, run, lin, and 
gel, have their prolongation on the several subtonic, and will 
not bear addition to the short tonic elements. 

Radical stress is applied to immutable, mutable and to indefi- 
nite syllables. In the first case, the shortness of the quantity 
produces as it were, only an explosive point of sound. It may 
be applied to the initial of all concrete intervals both rising and 
falling, and to the beginning of the wave. 

From what has been said, it must not be understood, that 
radical stress is used, only to give the distinction of loudness 
to immutable syllables ; the enforcement is likewise appropriate 
to the various states of mind embraced by them ; and in the 
full energy of its abruptness, is a sign of the highest degree of 
passion. 



26 



394 THE MEDIAN STRESS 



SECTION XXXVI. 

Of the Median Stress. 

The Radical stress is principally effective in distinguishing 
immutable syllables. Long quantities, admitting other means 
for attracting the ear, more rarely require the initial explosive 
fulness. They receive their stress, with greater dignity and 
grace, from an enforcing of the middle portion of the concrete 
movement. 

As a pause is always the preface to abruptness, the explosive 
characteristic of the radical stress, cannot be employed during 
the course of a continuous movement. The Median stress is 
therefore a gradual increase and subsequent decrease of fulness 
in the voice, similar to what is called a Swell, in the language 
of musical expression. There is this difference between them. 
The swell of song is sometimes on a note continued upon the 
same line of pitch: whereas the median stress is always in 
either an upward or downward concrete ; or about the junction 
of these opposite movements, in the wave. 

This form of force cannot be used on all the simple intervals 
of the scale. And since it necessarily calls for an extended 
quantity, it is generally applied to the waves. Of the simple 
intervals, it is practicable, if at all, only on the fifth and the 
octave, slowly prolonged. When a melody of the second or of 
the semitone requires the dignity of the median stress, it is 
always effected on the waves of these intervals. In this case 
the median stress is applied to the middle of the course of the 
concretes ; that is, about the junction of the two lines of con- 
trary flexure. And what is here said of these waves, must be 
understood of the single wave of every interval both direct and 
inverted. When the median stress is applied to the double 
wave, it is laid on the course of a downward or an upward con- 



THE MEDIAN STRESS. 395 

stituent, as the wave niay be direct or inverted ; for such 
constituent will be in each case, respectively the middle portion 
of its whole extent. 

The median stress is applicable to the tittelar waves of the 
tremulous scale; and in effect, only enforces the tittles and 
their rapid concrete at the junction of the intervals of a single 
wave, or on the middle constituent of a double one. When 
thus employed, it gives energy to the expression of the tremor, 
and affords variety to the ear. 

Inasmuch as force under any form, may be used with other 
means of expression, its principal purpose in combination, is to 
enhance the power of those other means. Thus the median 
stress on the wave of the second gives dignity to the diatonic 
melody ; on the wave of the semitone, it increases its plaintive- 
ness ; on the downward fifth and octave, if practicable, it adds 
to the degree of its wonder or positiveness ; on the rising fifth 
and octave, if practicable, it sharpens interrogation ; and on 
the wider waves gives dignity and force to their several ex- 
pressions. AYe have said, the radical stress has an energy 
sometimes amounting even to violence. But the median, now 
under consideration, sets forth intensity of voice, with greater 
dignity, and elegance, than all the other forms of force. The 
radical stress having an abrupt opening, and the vanishing, as 
will be shown presently, having a sudden termination, there is 
a sharp earnestness in their manner, not conveyed by the median ; 
the aim and power of which ' in the very torrent of expression,' 
is to 'beget a temperance that may give it smoothness.' 

Here pardon me, reader, when I pass from instruction to 
eulogy. 

If she could now be heard, I would point in illustration to 
Britain's great Mistress of the voice. Since that cannot be, 
let those who have not forgotten the stately dignity of Mrs. 
Siddons, bear witness to the effect of the graceful vanish of her 
concrete, and of that swelling voice of median energy, by which 
she richly enforced the expression of joy, and surprise, and 
indignation. Yet why should I be so sparing in praise, :i- to 
select her eminent exemplification of the single subject before 



396 THE MEDIAN STRESS. 

us 3 when it seems to my recollection 5 a whole volume of elocu- 
tion might be taught by her instances. 

It is apparently a partial rule of criticism, but when drawn 
from delicate perceptions, enlightened by cultivation, it is the 
best j to estimate the merit of Actors, by their power of audibly 
representing the varied thought and passion of their part, which 
the consenting thought, and passion of the hearer is whispering 
to itself. This is the rule, that in my early days of ignorance, 
but not of insensibility, set up this great Woman's voice, as a 
mirror for every trait of natural expression, in which one might 
recognize his deep, unuttered sympathy, and love the flattering 
picture as his own. All that is smooth, and flexible, and various 
in intonation, all that is impressive in force, and in long-drawn 
time, all that is apt upon the countenance, and consonant in 
gesture, gave their united energy, gracefulness, grandeur, and 
truth, to this one great model of Ideal Elocution. Her's was 
that hight of excellence, which, defying mimicry, can be made 
imaginable only by being equaled. 

Such was my enthusiastic opinion, before a scrutiny into 
speech had developed a boundless scheme of criticism and 
instruction ; which, in admitting that nature may hold within 
her laws, the unrevealed power of producing occasional instances 
of rare accomplishment of voice ; yet assures us, that nothing 
but the influence of some system of principles, founded on a 
knowledge of those laws, can ever produce multiplied exam- 
ples of excellence, or give to any one the perfection of art. 
There is a pervading energy in Observative Science which 
searches, discovers, gathers-together, co-arranges, still ampli- 
fies, and completes ; and which all the means of untrained effort 
can never reach. I do not wish to be asked, how this ' most 
noble mother' of her Art, with only those unwritten ordina- 
tions of nature, that still allowed her to incur the dangers of 
the scanty doctrines of her School $ would be accounted by the 
side of another Siddons, making her selections with propriety 
and taste, from the familiar rudiments, and measurable functions 
of the voice ; and able, by the authority of a directive and unin- 
dulgent discipline, to be a rational critic over herself. With a 



THE VANISHING STRESS. 397 

full relian-ce on the surpassing efficacy of scientific instruction, 
still, in the contentment of recollection, I would not wish to 
answer this question. 

The vision of the Great Actress is before me ! If I am beset 
by an illusion, which another hearing might dispel, I rejoice to 
think I can never hear her again.* 



SECTION XXXVII. 

Of the Vanishing Stress. 

Our description of the simple concrete of speech, represented 
it with an initial fulness, and a gradual decrease. The reverse 
construction indicated by the term of this Stress, does indeed 
change the simple form of the concrete : but I thought, even 
with its verbal contrariety, it would be more immediately intel- 
ligible, if not more exactly descriptive of the function, than 
any other more logical name. The vanishing stress is an 
application of force to the end of the concrete, both in its rising 
and falling direction. This must necessarily give a fulness, 
with something like an abrupt termination, at the place of the 
vanish. 

The peculiar vocal effect of the vanishing stress may be illus- 
trated by the function of Hiccough. Indeed, this hie, catch, 
or *////,■// -cough has received a conventional name, that by ety- 
mology, describes its very formation ; and from its being 

* In the title 'most noble mother,' I refer to the salutation of Coriolanus to 
Volumnia: for it is in this character Mrs. Siddons always comes like a speaking 
picture, upon my memory; embodying the puthos, the matron dignity, and t he 
indignation, together with the other moral solemnities of the scene of inter ces- 
sion in the Volcian camp. 



398 THE VANISHING STRESS. 

instinctively practicable, may be tlie subject of experiment. 
The hiccough, then, is produced by the gradual increase of the 
guttural sound, until it is suddenly obstructed by an occluded 
catch, somewhat resembling the element k, or g ; and if it be 
compared with a single effort of the common cough, the abrupt- 
ness in each will respectively exemplify the reverse difference 
between the vanishing and the radical stress : for the common 
cough has the full accented opening of a radical, and the hic- 
cough, a full accented closing at the place of the vanish. The 
hiccough however, does not, in all points, resemble the proper 
vanishing stress of speech, except the syllable which bears the 
stress, terminates with an abrupt element. The hiccough may 
be made on all intervals of the scale. In ordinary cases, it 
assumes that of the second or third ; but when attended with 
great distress, as sometimes happens in disease, it is heard 
through the plaintive interval of the semitone. 

The effect of the vanishing stress may be heard in the speech 
of the natives of Ireland ; many of whom apply it to the simple 
rise, or fall, or to the wave, on all the principal words of a sen- 
tence. It is this function which produces that quick and pecu- 
liar jerk of syllabic sound, in the earnest pronunciation of the 
ignorant ranks of that peculiar People. 

The vanishing stress is practicable on all the rising and falling 
intervals of the scale. On the wave, it is applied to the last 
constituent. 

This stress, as one of the forms of force, gives to the several 
intervals, a more attractive power over the ear, than belongs to 
their simple concretes. Thus, if perceptible at all, on the plain 
inexpressive second, it adds that Irish jerk which only deforms 
without enforcing speech. On the rising third, fifth, and oc- 
tave, it gives intensity to their interrogation. On the down- 
ward course of these intervals, it enhances the degree of sur- 
prise and positiveness ; and on the wave, joins force to the 
expression of its various forms. 

The effect of the vanishing stress on a semitone, may be heard 
in the act of Sobbing. This is made on a concrete guttural 
sound, gradually increasing in force and terminated in some 



THE COMPOUND STRESS. 399 

bases by the occluded catch. Now the vanishing stress on the 
semitone in discourse, is as it were, a sobbing upon words, and 
Bervefl to mark intensively, the plaintive expression of the sim- 
ple concrete. 

The character of discourse occasionally requires so quick a 
time, that only the simple rise or fall can be employed ; and 
yet, it may be necessary to designate clearly, the terminative 
point of the interval. This is accomplished by the vanishing 
stress. Since a hasty utterance of complaint or interrogation, 
which has time for flight only in one direction, will, in mark- 
ing emphatically the extent of the interval, apply this ter- 
minative force to the simple rise or fall of the semitone, third, 
fifth, or octave. 

It was stated j the radical stress is effective, principally in 
distinguishing immutable syllables. On these the vanishing 
stress is not cognizable. It requires a longer quantity ; and 
its application thereon, gives an equal degree of force with the 
median stress ; but it has much less dignity and grace than the 
gradual swell of this last named elegant manner of forcible 
expression. 



SECTION XXXVIII. 

Of the Compound Stress. 

BESIDES the obvious effect of stress, when laid exclusively en 
the beginning, or middle, or end of the concrete, the cultivated 
and attentive ear recognizes the abrupt opening of the radical, 
and the full termination of the vanishing stress, when used in 
succession on the same syllable, both in a rising and falling 



400 THE COMPOUND STRESS. 

direction. The best reference, for illustrating this Compound 
stress, is to what vocalists call a Shake : for I shall endeavor 
to show hereafter, that the characteristic of this Grace of Song, 
consists in a rapid iteration of the concrete of speech, when 
impressed with both the radical, and vanishing stresses. 

The compound stress, though scarcely applicable to the nar- 
row intervals of the scale, is distinguishable, on the wider 
spaces of the fifth, and octave. It may likewise be executed 
on the various forms of the wave ; the final stress being then 
laid on the last constituent. 

After what has been said respectively of the radical and the 
vanishing stress, this under consideration being but a compound 
of themj it is scarcely necessary to add, that it more forcibly 
denotes the state of mind singly indicated by each constituent. 
And although an alternation of the radical, with the vanishing 
stress, is beautifully exemplified in the rapid shake of song, 
and may be deliberately executed on a long syllable, in the 
speaking voice ; yet this compound function cannot, on a short 
quantity, be distinguished from the simple radical abruptness ; 
nor indeed is there in this case, time for its execution. 

Let us suppose, a syllable of long quantity embracing an 
angry or authoritative inquiry ; and that the fifth, with prolonged 
intonation, is the interval chosen for this interrogative. The 
force required here as the sign of anger or authority, would be 
represented by the radical stress, while the full-marked extent 
of the interval under the increased force of the vanish, would 
give a corresponding energy and impressiveness to the interro- 
gation. The compound stress is however, by no means an 
agreeable form of force. There is a snappish rudeness in its 
character, that should always be avoided by a good reader, 
except on those rare occasions which especially call for the 
peculiarity of its expression. 



THE THOROUGH STRESS. 401 

SECTION XXXIX. 

Of the Thorough Stress. 

By this form of force on the concrete, we are to understand, 
a continuation of the same full body of voice throughout its 
whole course. It may be applied to all the rising and falling 
intervals, and in continuation to the several constituents of the 
wave. 

The character of this stress may be perceived, by continuing 
an octave, with the same volume of voice, through its whole 
course, as represented by the last symbol in the foregoing 
diagram j and comparing its effect with that of the simple 
radical and vanishing octave, shown by the first. The peculiar 
character of this continued volume, will not only be obvious, 
but the interrogative effect of the octave will be greatly 
obscured by it ; for the true interrogative interval is, through 
habit, known to the ear by its attenuated vanish, as well as by 
its extent. 

The thorough stress may perhaps be occasionally used for 
some especial emphasis, on short indefinite, on immutable, and 
on mutable syllables ; though it is then not distinguishable from 
the radical stress. Its peculiar character on long quantities, 
in phrases and sentences, is that of uncouth and rustic coarse- 
ness ; and if I may so speak, its blunt impression on the ear, 
seems related to the delicate effect of the equable concrete, as 
a rude sketch on the canvas, to the graceful lines, tinted color, 
and Mended lights and shadows of the finished picture. "With 
an exception of the occasions for its use, on shorter quantities, 
just stated, it is to be employed only for the comic personation 
of those, with whom, as a coarse deformity of speech it is 
instinctive; or on occasions, when through those insufficiencies, 
Public-Schooling, Morals, haw, and the Pulpit, it may l>c sadly 
necessary to meet the brutal tongue, upon the field of its own 



402 THE THOROUGH STRESS. 

vocal degradation. Without raising here, the blinding dust of 
argument, on the moral question of returning good for evil 3 the 
rule is less disputable, that civility of voice is not always to 
be returned to its rudeness. For those, who by accident ever 
come into contact with the savage in civilization, know that a 
hard-voiced word of retort, to a rough address, has sometimes 
saved much subsequent verbal, if not worse contention. Just as a 
well-presented posture of defense to a menaced attack has, from 
some lurking calculation in a seeming courage, often prevented 
serious consequences, in personal as well as national strife.* 

From time almost immemorial, every man, and every class of 
men has tried in vain, to satisfy the anxious inquirer, as to the 
exact sign, and comprehensible character of the true Christian, 
the honest Patriot, and the real Gentleman. In the last case, 
Aristocracy and Democracy, those eternal combatants, have 
always been the most remote from agreement. The latter how- 
ever, particularly in our country of Equal Rights, Overbearing 
Corporations, and Despotic Majorities, having come to a unani- 
mity, has at last with a popular logic, given the acceptable 
definition ; and thus terminated all invidious distinctions, by 
making every Man a Gentleman, and every Woman a Lady. 
Leaving others to review the Census of this vast and novel 
Genus, on those points that may have fallen under their dis- 
criminating observation 3 it is only our part, to perceive among 
all the generic similarities, some specific differences of Intona- 
tion. For if that affable address, that refined reply, that vocal 
invitation to a well-bred sociability, that delicate vanish which 
gently passes from the ear to the heart ; if in short, the kindly 
meaning of the equable concrete, is different from that clown- 
ish answer which figuratively, repels us with a vocal frown, 
and from that coldness of thought, and death of every sen- 
timentive state, embraced within the rudeness of the thorough 

* Testimony might be brought to the fact, that nothing, on occasions, more 
moderates the incipient insolence of a blackguard, with all his boldness, than 
a spirited return of an assumed phrase of thorough-stressed and peace-making 
profanity, from a modest individual, with clean and delicate hands and face, 
who did not seem to hold in readiness, a warning oath as preface to a blow. 



THE THOROUGH STRESS. 403 

stress; then is he who has the gracious intonation which seems 
to turn the stranger at once into the friend, a world-wide 
different from that laconic Dog in office, with his surly No ; 
that fool-wealthy Ignoramus, with his bluff command ; and in 
mind as well as in voice, from the coarse and vicious vulgarity 
of that hitherto unknown species, in progressive creation, the 
American Rowdy.* 

* I say, hitherto unknown ; yet Ethnologists, skilled in tracing the wafted 
seeds, and offsets of nationality, have hinted at the 'habitat' of this 'pre- 
morse root ' of the voices in the pasture of our gruflfy ancestor John Bull; or 
in the hunting and cricket grounds, and in the ' wassail braying-out ' on the Estate 
of the English country Gentleman, ' all of the olden time.' With this Rowdy, of 
whatever origin, who practically personifies a compliment to our astonishing 
advancement in Morality, Refinement, Legislative Energy, Law, and in States- 
man-Supervision 4 the rudeness of the stressful concrete, is an inborn vice. 
Gipsies and thieves of the Old World, have a conventional slang, for mislead- 
ing the fearless search of justice. But the surpassing Rowdy of the New, 
knowing himself to be above the law, boldly writes his threatening titles on our 
walls, and openly proclaims the watchword of his conspiring Crew. Among 
these words, so called from some low conceit or other, are Boy, and Sir. Now 
both of these allow a delicate execution of the vanish. This however is not 
suited to the Rowdy's character : and nature, true to her signs of the good and 
the bad, directs him, by another instinct, to give these words, in the warning 
intonation of the thorough stress. This coming to the mouths of the populace, 
they have made an awkward imitation of the thorough, by changing it to some- 
thing like the compound stress. And this leading to a division of the words 
into two syllables, has given us the vulgar slang of the streets, as we every 
where hear it, in Bo-hoy and Sir-rce. 

The full, and the hair-stroke lines of the graceful old copper-plate letter, and 
some of the deformities of modern type, afford symbols for these different states 
of the concrete. A love of variety among Conventual Scribes, once perverted 
and distorted the Roman alphabet almost beyond recognition. The same effort 
to overwhelm taste with novelty, is now in progress by the Sign-painter, and 
the Printer of placards. Among a thousand awkward oddities of the Type- 
founder, we can find something just to our purpose. The well-finished form of 
Roman capitals, and punctuation, with their full, and their vanishing lines, 
contrast remarkably, as in the following diagram, with their rowdy-looking 
counterparts; designed under that Widely-Destructive Principle, recognized in 
Popular Taste j of ■ Something New.' It is indeed a fancy ; but the Roman C 



404 the thorough stress. 

I do not say, though it may indeed be often true, that the 
man who has no vanish in his voice, is fit for 4 stratagems and 
spoils :' But I do believe 3 if Shakspeare had chosen to look as 
far into speech, as he did into thought, passion, and language 3 
he would have seen that Nature has, in the human voice, ner 
especial sign of the Boorish and Unruly, as well as of the 
Unmusical ' soul ;' and would, in some of his own fine analytic 
metaphors, if not with a mentivity aptly turned to explanatory 
science, clearly have described it. Nor is this beyond a just 
estimate of the power of his Panoramic Observation. 

In closing this section, we may once more contrast the rude 
intonation of the thorough stress, with the craving voice of the 
Hypocrite and the Sycophant, insinuating their several ways 
to authority and favor. The Rowdy more true to his violence, 
uses the heavy stress, to alarm the unwary, and is then ready to 
break through all opposition. While the subtilty of the others, 
without a warning rattle to the unconscious victim abuses the 
delicate, kind, and honorable purpose of the social vanish, by 
its servile excess, and its puling application to every variety of 
sinister thought, with nothing so plain and honest as passion 
about it. 

elegantly pictures to me the equable concrete : the rowdy Type-founder's 
modern improvement reminds me of the coarseness of the thorough stress. In 
short, the contrast suggests to us, the difference between our idea of that 
graceful and celebrated linear scroll by Appelles, and the twisting turns of a 
crooked billet. 



THE LOUD CONCRETE. 405 

SECTION XL. 
Of the Loud Concrete. 

By the Loud Concrete, I mean that stress which distinguishes 
a given syllable from adjacent ones ; the parts of the concrete 
still retaining the comparative structure of the radical and 
vanish. It is in short, what was called the simple concrete, 
magnified, if we may so speak, proportionally throughout, by 
emphatic stress. It is not distinguishable on a very short 
quantity ; the radical stress being there, the proper form of 
force. 

Although, it has no peculiar character of expression, it will 
be referred to, in a future section, on Accent. 

All the forms of stress, thus enumerated, may be applied 
to the tittelar course of the tremor, in the simple intervals, 
and in the wave ; thereby giving a more marked expression to 
the gayety of laughter ; to the plaintiveness of crying ; to the 
exultation of tremulous emphasis, whether in rising or falling ; 
and to interrogation. 



SECTION XLI. 

Of the Time of the Concrete. 

The radical and vanishing movement was represented as 
having an equable continuation of time throughout its progress ; 
and thereby distinguished from the protracted radical and pro- 
tracted vanish of Song. 



406 THE, TIME OE THE CONCRETE. 

The purposes of expression sometimes demand a change of 
this equability of the concrete, to a quicker utterance of its 
beginning, or middle, or end. This condition of time is closely 
connected with an application of the different forms of stress ; 
for it is difficult to give stress without running into quickness 
of time ; and as difficult to give quickness to time without 
marking the rapid part of the concrete with stress. The rela- 
tion of these functions is most conspicuous in the radical stress ; 
for its sudden burst is necessarily followed by a momentary 
quickness of utterance. The median and the vanishing stress, 
when strongly emphatic, likewise carry with them a run of 
time ; for there is in these cases, an endeavor, however fruit- 
less, to effect, on an unbroken concrete, something like the 
explosion of the radical. These fitful gusts of breath through 
the radical, median, and vanishing places, necessarily occur 
along with their respective stresses, on all the intervals of the 
scale, and at those points of the wave where the stress is 
applied. There may also be a compound quick time of the 
concrete, attendant on the compound stress, in the prolonged 
movements of speech. But perhaps this is only a refinement 
in observation. 

On the whole, regarding the time of the concrete separately 
from stress, it is not of any practical importance, in expression. 
It was my purpose to give a history of speech. This quickness 
was perceived, and it is therefore transiently noticed. 



THE ASPIRATION. 407 

SECTION XLII. 

Of the Aspiration. 

TVe have thus far learned, how the five modes of vocal sound, 
Quality, Time, Pitch, Abruptness, and Force, together with 
the absence of all impression in the Pause, do by their separate 
and their mingled influence produce the varied effects of speech 
already described. 

The works of nature are inexhaustible patterns of permuta- 
tion ; and the function now to be considered, will show addi- 
tional means for diversifying the effect of those signs of expres- 
sion, heretofore described. The subject of this section does 
properly belong to the Mode of quality ; but having received a 
place and name among the alphabetic elements, and having 
peculiar properties, it deserves a separate notice here. I shall 
therefore endeavor to show that the element denoted by the 
letter Z», or, as it is called, the Aspiration, has eminent powers 
of expression. 

By calling h a mere breathing, some authors imagine they 
insure the right to reject this element from the alphabet. It 
may be said in truth, that aspiration, as a separate and uncm- 
phatic element is feeble, and has not the tunable and flexile 
vocality of the tonics : yet while harrow and arroiv owe the 
difference in their meanings respectively to the presence and 
absence of the element j that breathing will fulfil the purpose 
of articulation, though it may not conform to the exact defini- 
tion of it. Notwithstanding, the defects of aspiration cannot 
be denied, under the cold measurement of the grammarian, it 
is still pre-eminently entitled to notice, as a powerful agent in 
oratorical expression. 

The element h is slightly susceptible of pitch ; and of abrupt- 
ness, as in a whispered cough; while it freely admits of pro- 
longed quantity. In this form, it furnishes the expressive 



408 THE ASPIRATION. 

interjection of Sighing. It admits, to a certain degree, the 
variations of force ; and under the calls of emphasis, is remark- 
ably displayed on the median stress. Its force may be more 
effectually exerted on the beginning of words ; especially those 
having universally an energetic meaning, as havoc, horror, 
and huzza. It is combined with most of the interjections, in 
all languages. 

Besides the above mentioned instances of its expression, 
where common orthography has given it a literal place, it is in 
certain cases of emphasis, engrafted on the several tonics and 
subtonics. For though aspiration does with its literal symbol, 
serve the purpose of a distinct constituent of syllables 3 it may 
even without the symbol, be severally united with elements 
having a vocality, without destroying their individual charac- 
ters. The quality of the tonic is indeed impaired by the union ; 
for the purity of a tonic element was negatively defined, by 
declaring its freedom from aspiration ; but the expressive effect 
in this case compensates for the loss of purity. 

There is some unknown mechanism of speech, by which 
the strenuous pronunciation of a tonic element becomes semi- 
aspirated. If the word horrible be deprived of its aspirate, it 
will be impossible to give orrible, in prolonged and energetic 
exclamation, without restoring in a great degree, the initial 
aspiration. The question 3 how far this unavoidable combina- 
tion operated to introduce the aspirated element, for the forci- 
ble expression of mere animal energy, at the date of what is 
called the origin of language 3 we leave to the everlasting dis- 
putes of those who look for truth in fancy, and who teaze 
themselves by the notional pursuit of undiscoverable things. 

Efforts of vociferation on syllables which do not contain the 
letter A, nevertheless assume the aspiration, and corrupt there- 
by the pure character of the tonics. Nay, in the excessive 
force of such efforts, the voice is sometimes lost from the atonic 
aspiration overruling the tonic vocality. The character of these 
united functions, when forcibly uttered, may be illustrated by 
the subtonics y-e, and w-o, respectively a compound of aspira- 
tion with the monothongs ee-\, and oo-ze. The other three 



THE ASPIRATION. 409 

monothongs e-rr, e-nd, z'-n, when united with aspiration, become 
obscurely the basis of the several other subtonics. And 
although the subtonics are thus formed by the mingling of 
vocalities with aspiration, they may yet receive further aspira- 
tion, for the purpose of energetic expression. 

The dipthongal tonics do not receive the aspiration with the 
same effect as the monothongs ; since there is something in their 
character, that prevents as great a change upon them, as takes 
place on the monothongs, by a union with aspiration. 

It was shown formerly that whispering, which is only the 
articulated form of aspiration, has its pitch, upon a succession 
of different alphabetic elements ; yet whatever may be the 
difficulties of this articulated intonation j the simple sufflation, 
when engrafted on the tonics, passes concretely through all 
the intervals of the scale, and unites itself with every form of 
stress. 

To show how far this function assists in the expression 
of speech, let us keep in mind what was said above, on the 
instinctive union of a vehement exertion of the voice, with its 
aspiration ; and consider further, two forms under which the 
simple aspiration is employed. 

One is a sort of facetious comment of surprise and incredu- 
lity, in common use, consisting of an effort of aspiration modi- 
fied by the tongue and lips, into what is called, in the fifth sec- 
tion, the sufflated whisper. The movement of this sufflated inter- 
jection is that of an unequal direct wave ; the first constituent 
being a tone or wider interval, according to the required expres- 
sion, and the second, a descent to the lowest audible pitch.* 

• The Elocutionist has certainly not talked without his books. And although 
ho seems never to have been concerned at not coming to his hearing, among 
their infinite number and confusion ; yet he has been, and still is, sorely afraid 
of admitting a full and precise nomenclature into them. Our analysis now 
enables us to point out the form of intonation in the prolonged and derisWe 
interjection, Whew, of the grammarian; though neither grammar nor elocution 
has taken the trouble to find it out, and to tell us, what it is. When the reader 
utters this Bofflftted interjection, by a descent from a very high to a very low 
pitch, he will have an illustration of what was said in the fifth section, on 
the scale of Whisper: for this suttiation, having e-ve at its upper extreme, and 

27 



410 THE ASPIRATION. 

The other effort of aspiration, is made by the larynx alone, 
and constitutes the function of Sighing. It consists of a simple 
inspiration, followed by an expiration, more or less prolonged 
through a falling second or wider interval, or semitonic wave, 
according to the character and intensity of the expression. A 
sigh is the well known vocal sign of distress, grief, and anxiety, 
and of fatigue and exhaustion, both of body and mind. Since 
these different cases include the general powers of expression, 
in simple and natural aspiration, we can infer 3 what will be the 
effect when this aspiration is joined with the vocality of speech. 

It may seem, but can only seem, to be an exception to the 
consistency of nature, that a quality of voice, which under a 
quiet whisper, serves the purpose of concealment, should be 
found united with vocality in the most forcible exertion of 
speech. Such however, is the fact ; for aspiration conjoined 
with the vehement forms of stress, becomes one of the signs of 
the greatest vocal energy. Its union therefore with a rising 
or falling interval of the scale in the Natural voice, increases 
the expressive power of that interval ; and perhaps adds the 
effect of sneer to intonations, that in their purely vocal form 
severally convey surprise, interrogation, irony, and command. 

Should this union of aspiration with vocality be given with 
an abatement of voice, approximating towards a whisper or a 
sigh, it becomes the sign of earnestness in various states of 
mind. Thus the following lines, when uttered in a pure vo- 
cality, will not have their proper expression. 

Hah! dost thou not see, by the moon's trembling light, 
Directing his steps, where advances a knight, 
His eye big with vengeance and fate ! 

Nor would their purpose be effected by an aspirated vocife- 
ration. But when subdued to a kind of union of the natural 

oo-ze at its lower, will prove, by the position of these elements on the scale, 
that it passes through two octaves ; the rapidity of the movement, as it seems 
to me, preventing the clear perception of the intermediate elements. In this 
case, the interjection differs from that described in the text;? and is the suffla- 
tion of whew through a double downward octave. 



THE EMPHATIC VOCULE. 411 

with the whispered voice, the earnestness of the appealing 
interrogation is at once, obvious and effective. 

Should an abated voice be aspirated on the Tremulous move- 
ment of a second or wider interval, it may denote apprehension 
or fear. When this abatement is aspirated on a simple rise or 
fall, or on a wave of the semitone, it is an approximation to 
the sigh ; and thus adds intensity to the plaintiveness or distress 
of the semitone on a pure vocality. When a tremor is super- 
added to the aspirated semitone, the voice exerts its ultimate 
means, for denoting the deepest sadness, without the assistance 
of crying and tears. 

Aspiration when combined with different forms of stress, and 
with the guttural voice, to be described presently, severally 
denotes sneer, contempt, and scorn : hence the means of join- 
ing with nearly every interval of intonation the expression of 
these various states of mind. Even the simple rising and fall- 
ing movements, indicating inquiry, surprise, and emphatic 
affirmation, may thus be made contemptuous ; the effect being 
more strongly marked when aspiration is applied to the wave 
in its unequal form. 



SECTION XLIII. 

Of the Emphatic Vocule. 

We learned, on the subject of the alphabetic elements, that 
when the articulative occlusion is removed, there is a slight and 
momentary but sudden issue of voice which completes the for- 
mation of the vocal, and is the only sound of the aspirated 



412 THE EMPHATIC VOCULE. 

abrupt elements. This was called the Yocule. It is a diminu- 
tive form of Abruptness. Like all other voices, it is susceptible 
of force. Its higher degrees of stress constitute the function 
named at the head of this section. The emphatic vocule de- 
notes great energy ; and necessarily follows a word, terminated 
by one of the abrupt elements. 

The vocules of b, d, and g, are vocal. Those of Jc, p 9 and t, 
are aspirated 3 yet under a forcible emphasis, are sometimes 
changed to vocality. Only that vehement mental state which 
directs, justifies the use of this unarticulated explosion, at the 
end of an emphatic word ; and cautious management is necessary 
to prevent its forcible utterance from passing into rant or 
affectation. 

When an abrupt element precedes a tonic, the vocule is lost 
in the sound of the tonic, which then seems to issue directly 
from the abrupt element. Thus in the word light, the vocule 
is distinctly heard at its termination ; but if t immediately 
precedes the tonic i, as in tile, the vocule is lost, and t is then 
only a peculiar radical opening of i. This is the proper coales- 
cence, except the abrupt element terminates a word. For in 
this case, a junction of the vocule with the tonic of a following 
word, may confuse pronunciation by destroying that clear limit 
which should give a separated individuality to every word of a 
sentence. This fault is sometimes even purposely assumed 3 
to remedy a want of physical energy in pronunciation. Per- 
sons who attempt to give unusual force to their radical stress, 
and who cannot readily explode the voice on a tonic, avail 
themselves of the facility of bursting-out from the final ab- 
rupt element of a word into a succeeding tonic. Thus if the 
phrase bad angels, should require force, either for emphasis, 
or for a distant auditory 3 the explosion of d into an would 
produce the coalescence bad dangels or ba-dangels. But as 
the arrangement of elements is a casual thing, it must hap- 
pen that the same word will occur in discourse, both with 
and without a preceding abrupt element ; and besides, the 
common exertion of force does not require the coalescence. 
These circumstances will prevent the effect of the junction 



THE GUTTURAL VIBRATION. 413 

becoming familiar to the ear, and thus passing for a proper and 
constant character of the word. A forcible pronunciation 
according to this method, will therefore sometimes create con- 
fusion in the perception of words ; and lead in most instances, 
to that momentary hesitation on the part of an audience, 
which prevents a ready comprehension of oral discourse. Let 
the phrase music sweet a?'t, be pronounced in this manner, and 
the combination will present an image both ludicrous and con- 
tradictory. 

If what has been said, on the means for effecting distinct 
articulation, by a full and clearly formed radical stress, is 
strictly applied j the designed purpose of this junction of tonic 
with abrupt elements may be accomplished without interfering 
with the perception of a clear outline in the boundary of words ; 
since this demarkation is necessary for distinct and dignified 
utterance, in the thoughtful purpose of an exalted elocution. 

In the rapid energy of colloquial speech, and of the passion- 
ate haste of emphatic discourse, this coalescence of the elements 
is more liable to occur ; nor in these instances can it always be 
avoided. 



~*>«®9 

SECTION XLIV. 

Of the Guttural Vibration. 

In our section on the mechanism of the voice, it was Bhown 
that the retraction of the root of the tongue, together with a 
closure of the pharynx, produces what seems to be a contact 
of the sides of the vocal canal above the glottis, and thus gives 
rise to a harsh vibration -j from the gush of air through the 



414 THE GUTTURAL VIBRATION. 

straitened passage. This peculiar sound may be made on both 
tonic and subtonic elements ; nor is their articulation much 
affected, by union with this Grating noise. I have called this 
function the Guttural Vibration, on account of its apparent 
formal cause. 

This guttural function is practicable on all the intervals 
of the scale ; and it adds to their respective characters, its 
own peculiar expression. This expression consists in the 
strongest degree of contempt, disgust, aversion, or execration ; 
and these states are most strongly marked on the intonation 
of the waves. 

When the guttural vibration is given with an exploded radical 
stress, it makes the speaker himself feel, in its disruption, that 
the effect must spread widely around him ; and while it per- 
cussively assaults the air, that it must, with the fullest power 
of expression, break through the ear into the understanding 
and heart of an audience. 



Having thus described the peculiar forms and degrees of 
Quality, Time, Force, Abruptness, and Pitch, and having 
marked out some of the occasions for their application in 
speech j we are now prepared to consider their other purposes, 
comprehended under the terms Accent, and Emphasis. This 
detail will form respectively the subjects of the two following 
sections. 



OF ACCENT. 415 

SECTION XLV. 

Of Accent. 

Accext is defined in philology to be 3 the Distinguishing of 
one syllable of a word from others, by the application of a 
greater force of voice upon it. This is a true, but limited 
account of accent 3 for it will be found that the accentual cha- 
racteristic consists in a syllable being brought under the special 
notice of the ear. This may be done by force ; but it may be 
likewise effected through other audible means. 

In a mature language, no word uttered singly, except as an 
elliptical proposition, conveys any intelligible relationship or 
meaning. Accent, as we use the term, is an attribute only of 
individual words, and cannot therefore embrace what is pro- 
perly called expression. When the impressive character of a 
syllable, either through force or other means, conveys a 
remarkable meaning, or expression, it constitutes what is called 
Emphasis. 

If we have thus, accurately stated the difference between 
accent and emphasis 3 Accent may be described in general terms, 
to be the fixed, but uithoiif/htive, and inexjoressive distinction 
between the syllables of a word ; and forming in every word 
of more than one syllable, that essential and striking feature, 
on which thought and passion may, when required, be empha- 
tically displayed. This simple audible-prominence of accent 
may be effected by radical stress j the loud concrete ■; and a 
longer quantity on the noted syllable. 

And First. Radical stress is the appropriate accent of immu- 
table syllables. The word iterated has four short syllables, 
With the accent on the first, The brevity of this syllable no( 
admitting the distinction of a prolonged quantity, or even of 
the loud concrete, the accent must be made by a sudden l>m>t 
of the Radical, into a momentary stress. The accent may be 



416 OF ACCENT. 

readily transferred to each of the other syllables, by giving the 
necessary degree of radical abruptness respectively to them. 

Second. Syllables of sufficient length to render the radical 
and vanishing movement cognizable, admit of accentual distinc- 
tion by the Loud concrete. In the word Padington, the three 
syllables are of moderate length, and about equal. As the first 
has quantity sufficient to prevent the necessity of adopting the 
explosive radical stress, its high accentual relief can be brought 
out 3 and readily transferred to each of the other syllables, by 
the loud concrete alone. Syllables adapted to the loud con- 
crete may receive at the same time, an addition of the radical 
stress ; the former however being adequate to the inexpressive 
purpose of accent, radical abruptness is unnecessary. 

Since the Thorough stress may sometimes be applied on 
a moderately short syllable, it might here be assigned, as 
one of the means of accent ; but it is scarcely to be distin- 
guished from the radical stress and the loud concrete, on these 
short quantities, and therefore does not deserve a separate con- 
sideration. 

Third. When the time or quantity of one syllable of a word 
exceeds the time of another, that syllable, according to our 
definition, gives accentual distinction ; and though unassisted 
by loudness or abruptness, sometimes necessarily assumes it. 
The word victory, pronounced withjhe usual degree of radical 
stress on the first syllable, and the second subsequently pro- 
longed, as if written vic-foe-ry, has the impressive distinction 3 
which in this case may be called the Temporal accent 3 post- 
poned to that second syllable ; even though it should be uttered 
with comparative feebleness, and with all possible omission of 
abruptness. Words which consist of syllables of equal time, 
such as needful, empire, farewell, sincere, and amen, easily 
undergo a change of accent to either syllable, by a slight addi- 
tion to its length. The word heaven, pronounced as one 
syllable, heavn, has the accent in its long quantity : divided 
into two syllables of equal time, as in heav-en, the place of the 
accent is doubtful, or the word may be said to have two equal 
accents. 



OF ACCENT. 417 

These are the three means for accentual distinction ; accent 
being the prominent and fixed feature that identifies a word, 
independently of any peculiar thought or expression. As these 
means are sufficient to give importance to syllables, without 
conveying at the same time thought or passion, which is the 
purpose of emphasis 3 we may see the line of separation between 
these functions. It is true, emphasis cannot exist without 
accent, for the emphatic is always the accented syllable ; and 
the expressive power of intonation, time, and stress must give 
the emphatic syllable that attractive influence which constitutes 
the essential agency of accent. 

I have pointed out only the radical stress 3 the thorough, con- 
ditionally, on moderately short quantities 3 and the loud con- 
crete, as the causes of accent, derived from force; since the 
median, the vanishing, and the compound, are more commonly 
used as the means of expression : and in the plain pronunciation 
of a single word, surely no one does employ these last named 
forms of stress. 

Notwithstanding all the kinds of accent here enumerated, 
are represented independently of pitch, still they are neces- 
sarily employed on one or other of its intervals. Thus in plain 
narrative or description, the radical stress, and loud concrete, 
and perhaps the thorough stress, are applied to the tone ; and 
the temporal accent, when not unduly prolonged, may take-on the 
direct and inverted wave of the same interval. For this gives 
dignity to utterance by means of its deliberate movement, with- 
out conveying any peculiar expression incompatible with the 
simple purpose of accent. But this remark has no reference to 
accent on single words, which excludes the idea of dignity, and 
of every expression whatever. 

Since the use of the three kinds of accent, is in a considerable 
degree governed by the time of syllables, it is desirable to know 
the circumstances which render them severally applicable^ 
make them easily changeable 3 and give them a predominant 
and controlling influence. 

Syllables, with regard to their time, were arranged under 
three classes, The Immutable, Mutable, and Indefinite. Radi- 



418 OF ACCENT. 

cal stress is the means for distinguishing immutable syllables. 
The loud concrete may be given to the mutable ; since they 
have sufficient length for the display of force, without the 
necessity of an abrupt explosion. Indefinite syllables, admit of 
the attractive distinction of the temporal accent ; and yet they 
are sometimes pronounced equally short with the immutable. 
Thus lo in loquacity, and lo, used as an emphatic interjection, 
exemplify the extremes of duration. Hence, the radical stress 
may sometimes be used on an indefinite syllable, in its shortest 
time ; as it is in the accent of the words, idleness and orderly. 

In words, consisting of a long and a short syllable, the 
accents of stress and quantity readily give way to each other. 
Thus in the noun perfume, the length of the last syllable yields 
to the stress, with a slight extension of quantity, on the first. 
But in the verb per/time, the stress as easily gives way to the 
temporal accent on fume. 

Of all the means by which one accented syllable of a single 
word is embossed upon the ear, if I may so speak, in higher 
relief than others, the most common is that of the temporal 
impression. In English words the accented syllable is gene- 
rally the longest; and the excess of length alone 3 without 
obvious radical abruptness, or an increase of force on the whole 
concrete, above the neighboring syllables > is sufficient to answer 
the purposes of accentual distinction. The majority of writers, 
without sufficient examination, have resolved all accents into 
excess of force. 

Inasmuch as the radical is the principal form of stress for 
short syllables ; and as the loud concrete may be applied on all 
• but immutable ones, it may be inquired, whether stress, or 
quantity has the greater influence in pronunciation, by its con- 
trolling or excluding power. In most words, this predominant 
influence is readily changeable ; as in the words Cordova, On- 
tario, commemoration, and purlieu; the accent/ of whatever, 
kind, being in these instances as easily practicable on one syl- 
lable as on another. But in words with the arrangement, and 
the habitual pronunciation, of beguile, indeed, delay, and re- 
venge, the temporal accent cannot be deprived of its supremacy, 






OF ACCENT. 419 

by a radical stress on the first syllable, except through an 
effort in exploding the first, and abbreviating the last. For it 
is sometimes necessary to reduce the quantity of one syllable, 
that the radical stress may take the lead on another. The 
accent of the word Emanuel, lies in the extended time of 
the second syllable. Scarcely any degree of abruptness can 
transfer the accent to U, while man retains its quantity. When 
this is shortened, the first syllable E, may, through a strong 
radical stress, be made the leading accent ; but the word will 
scarcely be recognized in the change. 

In regarding the subject of accent, it ought to be borne in 
mind that a difference in kind or quality, of the elementary 
sounds, may in some cases, be mistaken for a difference in 
force ; since to many an ear, ee-\ and a-le might seem to be 
surpassed by oic-y and a-we. If however, there is that pre- 
dominance, then Quality may sometimes be a cause of accent, 
or may assist its influence. 

There are different degrees of susceptibility among the ele- 
ments, in receiving the accent. The tonics more easily and 
conspicuously take-on each of its three forms. The abrupt ele- 
ment.- are heard in the vanishing stress, and assist the radical 
explosion on the tonics; but are utterly incapable of the loud 
concrete, and the temporal accent. The subtonics have little 
or no power, under the radical stress ; yet they fulfil all the 
purposes of quantity ; while the atonies, though heard in the 
emphatic vocule, never, in proper and unaffected speech, receive 
accentual distinction. 

The impressive agency of accent upon the ear, is fixed in the 
pronunciation of the English language, on one or two syllables 
of all words, with more than one. It is an abundant source of 
variety in speech; forms in part, the measure of our versifica- 
tion : and when skilfully disposed, by the adjustment of a deli- 
cate ear, produces with the assistance of quantity and pause, 
the varied rythmic measure of prose. 

Some grammarians and rhetoricians, with whom the intelli- 
gent Mr. Sheridan is to be ranked, have set-forth a rule, that 
when the accent falls on a consonant, the syllable is short ; and 



420 OF ACCENT. 

long when on a vowel. At school, I could not understand this 
great prosodial principle : now, I perceive it has no foundation. 
For if accent is variously produced by radical stress, the loud 
concrete, and by quantity 3 a distinction of literal place cannot 
make the supposed difference. The abrupt stress will always 
be made on a tonic, (or vowel,) notwithstanding the syllable 
may be opened on a preceding subtonic, or abrupt element. 
The loud concrete must be applied on all the elements without 
distinction ; while an accentual impression by quantity must 
consist of the united time of tonics and subtonics, when the syl- 
lable is constructed with these different elements. All this 
however, is only a denial of the truth of the rule, on the ground 
of our own history of accent. Let us hear how the rule agrees 
with the fact of pronunciation. In the word ac-tion, the abrupt 
stress is on the vowel (tonic) a ; for c in this case, having no 
body of sound, is but the occluded termination of a* yet the 
syllable is short ; and in re-venge, the accent or the greatest 
impression on the ear, is from the quantity of the subtonics 
(consonants) n, and zh* and yet the syllable is long. Lan- 
guage is full of like examples ; and from the illustration they 
furnish, we may learn that the time of syllables bears no fixed 
relation to stress, nor to other means of accentual agency. 
The prevalent error on this subject must be ascribed to the 
general cause of all errors ; a want of observation at first, and 
the assumption of notions, to prevent observation ever after, by 
those who adopt them. 

Mr. Walker has given a theory of accent ; making it depen- 
dent on the rising and falling inflection, as indefinitely described 
by him. If the preceding history of intonation is true, and if 
it has been clearly comprehended, the reader must conclude, 
that accent can have no fixed relationship to a rise of the voice, 
or to its fall ; since it is effected with every essential charac- 
teristic, under either of these opposite movements 3 their junc- 
tion into the wave 3 and under all the changeable phrases of 
melody. 

Much has been said by authors, on the application of accent. 
But with the sole means of the Tongue and the Ear, yet with 



OF EMPHASIS. 421 

scholastic authority all around me, I began this history of the 
voice, with a resolution to speak from Nature; and not after 
men, too blind or too proud to consult Her ever-open, and Re- 
vealing Book of Speech. 



SECTION XLVI. 
Of Emphasis. 

Emphasis is defined, to be a stress of voice on one or more 
words of a sentence, thereby to forcibly impress the hearer with 
their peculiarity of meaning. Most writers, without seeming 
to consider the subject of much importance, indefinitely attri- 
bute to emphasis, a characteristic 'tone;' and Mr. Walker 
imagined he specified this idea, throughout all its conditions, in 
his general, and vague account of the upward and downward 
inflection. 

But authority aside ; let us try to do something to the pur- 
pose, by observing and recording. 

It was stated, that Accent is the fixed, but inthoughtive and 
inexpressive distinction of syllables, by quantity and stress ; 
alike both in place and character, whether the words are pro- 
nounced singly from the columns of a vocabulary, or connect- 
edly in the series of discourse. 

Emphasis is either the tlioughtive or expressive, yet only the 
occasional distinction of a syllable, and thereby of the whole 
word, or of several successive words, by one or more of the 
various forms and degrees of Time, Quality, Force, Abruptness, 
and Pitch. 

As this notable function represents the various states of 



422 THE EMPHASIS OF QUALITY. 

mind, it is applied occasionally on the current of discourse ; 
but it may be employed on solitary interjections, and on one or 
two words, forming an elliptical sentence. It will appear here- 
after, that emphasis is no more than a generic term, including 
specifications of the use of every mode of the voice, for enforcing 
thought and passion. 

The stated means of quantity and stress which constitute 
Accent, being included among the enumerated causes of Em- 
phatic distinction, it might be inferred, that in these particu- 
lars, accent and emphasis cannot differ from each other. Quan- 
tity, radical stress, and the loud concrete, are indeed the same 
in both cases ; but their purpose and power in the latter, invest 
them with the attractive influence of thought or expression. 

For a detailed account of the particular occasions requiring 
emphasis when restricted to the means of stress, the reader is 
referred to libraries. They contain rhetorical, and critical 
works, setting-forth this part of elocution, with comprehensive- 
ness, perspicuity and taste. It is our aim, to point-out and to 
measure the vocal means of this important function. 

Emphasis produces its effect upon the ear, by means of the 
quality, force, time, and abruptness of voice, and the varied 
intervals of intonation. The particular enumeration of these 
means will be given under the following heads. 



Of the Emphasis of Quality. 

The different forms of the mode of Quality, were enumerated 
in the ninth section. They are variously, thoughtive or expres- 
sive, and some of them strongly affect the ear. Besides their 
use in the general current of speech, they may be occasionally 
applied as emphasis on single words. I do not say, we are to 
include under this head, those questionable cases of what may 
be called, the Phonology of Style, in which sound is said to be 
' an echo to the sense.' The reader may, on this point, consult 
Mr. Sheridan, and other writers j and judge for himself, how 



THE EMPHASIS OF FORCE. 423 

far any individual sound of the alphabetic element?, may be 
considered as quality, and applied as emphasis. The follow- 
ing line from Milton's Lycidas, is said to be an example of 
this kind of expression. 

Their lean and flashy songs 
Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw. 

If the r, here repeated, be roughened by vibration of the 
tongue, it may be thought to represent vocally the harshness of 
the Shepherd's pipe ; but to me, the expression, if expression 
at all, would be lost in its affectation. And generally, when 
cases of this kind do not consist in a resemblance of the sound 
of the word to the sound signified, or in an associative influence 
of the sense on the sound, they are often a false or a puerile 
figure of speech.* 

The guttural vibration as a quality, is expressive of scorn 
and execration. The falsette may be emphatic, in the scream 
of terror. 



Of the Emphasis of Force. 

Under the Time-honored, we cannot call it a Satisfactory 
System of Elocution, Force or Stress seems to have been 
regarded as the principal, and if we except the vague preten- 
sions of ancient Accent and of modern Inflection, as the only 
means of emphatic distinction. Our system ascribes to it an 

* Buzz, hiss, and a few others, may be identical in sound with what they 
verbally represent; but let not the Virgilian Scholar, impressed with the 
rythmus of that apologetic maxim, in Roman robbery, of beating down the 
Proud, 'debellare superbos,' be misled into the fancy, that the mere syllabic 
sound of superb, is, in itself, an echo, as the poor metaphor calls it, to the idea 
of magnificence, or grandeur; since, by the transposition of syllables, which 
cannot vary the effect of unassociated sound, we might have the sujierb concep- 
tion of a Royal Banquet, changed-: if we may make the disenchanting and 
unseemly contrast ; to that of the homely table of Poverty, with nothing but its 
Herb Soup and the convenience of a pewter spoon. 



424 THE RADICAL EMPHASIS. 

influential but not an overbearing agency among the Modes of 
the voice. In the first section, Abruptness is described as a 
peculiar function, and although apparently a form of Force, is 
classed as a separate Mode. The scope however, of its cha- 
racter and occasion is limited ; for it has no varied forms, and 
only a difference in degree. It might indeed be arranged 
apart, and termed, the Abrupt-radical stress ; since it is at the 
opening alone of the concrete, that its effect as a peculiar func- 
tion, and an independent Mode of speech is recognized. Still 
as the Radical stress bears a congenial, or at least a classified 
relationship to the use of force on other parts of the concrete, I 
have thought, with this prefatory remark, the term abrupt 
stress, even with its claims to a separate arrangement, might 
here be included in the subject of Radical Emphasis. 



Of the Radical Emphasis. 

When an immutable syllable bears the accent, in a word 
remarkable by thought, passion, or antithesis >, the audible dis- 
tinction can be made only in three ways ; by quality of voice ; 
a wide radical change in the phrase of melody ; and an abrupt 
enforcement of the radical stress. The two former will be 
noticed in their proper places. The last is here illustrated. 

And with perpetual inroads to alarm, 
Though inaccessible, his fatal throne; 
"Which, if not victory, is yet revenge. 

If the strongly contrasted meaning of the word victory, is 
not represented by guttural vibration, by aspiration, or some 
other available quality ; or by a change of radical pitch upward 
or downward through the skip of a third, fifth, or octave, the 
syllable vie must be raised into importance by means of the 
abrupt radical stress : at least no other form can be effective 



THE MEDIAN EMPHASIS. 425 

while the syllable is limited to its usual or conventional 
quantity. 

Let us not pass unnoticed the impressive succession of sylla- 
bic quantity and pause in this closing line ; a rythmus, though 
prosaic, yet remarkable for the skilful comparison of the rapid 
time, and abruptness of vie, with the long-drawn and gliding 
voice on venge ; the rest between the contrasted clauses, 
gradually preparing the ear, for repose on the indefinite quan- 
tity of the terminative cadence. 

It is true, even an immutable syllable may be carried rapidly 
through any interval of the scale ; still this rapid movement 
when not joined with the radical change, is of no emphatic 
importance. 

Although the radical emphasis is here allotted to immutable 
syllables, it may be laid also on those of indefinite time. But 
since these admit of more agreeable forms, derived from 
quantity and intonation, they less frequently require the strong 
explosion of the radical. 

This emphasis is the sign of anger, positive affirmation, com- 
mand, and energetic mental states of all kinds. It is also the 
common means of enforcement, whatever the time of the sylla- 
ble, when discourse requires a rapid utterance. 



Of the Median Emphasis. 

TnE prominent display of the thought or expression of a 
word, by a gradual increase and subsequent diminution of 
voice, can be effected only on syllables of indefinite time. It 
has an importance equal to that of the radical stress, under a 
form of greater smoothness, dignity and grace. In the follow- 
ing sentence, the word sole conveys the mental state of warm and 
serious admiration, which is finely expressed by this emphasis, 

Wonder not sov'reign Mistress, if perhaps 
Thou caus't, who art sole wonder ! 

28 



426 THE VANISHING EMPHASIS. 

Though the median stress might possibly be executed on the 
simple rise and fall of the fifth, and octave, when considerably 
prolonged, yet it is more frequently, and more effectively made 
on the wave. In the present case, the emphatic intonation of 
the word sole is through the equal wave of the second or third ; 
the swell being at the junction of its two constituents. 

The reader must bear in mind, that in assigning the form of 
stress in this, and the preceding examples, I have been governed 
by the principles of speech, laid down in this volume ; and that 
I shall continue to apply them, in illustrating the other forms 
of emphasis, included under this section ; for if these examples 
be read in any of those various ways, resulting from vulgar 
attempts in elocution, or from scholastic authority 3 I shall in 
all probability be misunderstood. According to our rule, the 
lines above quoted should have a plain but deeply reverentive 
character, on the long quantities of its diatonic melody ; giving 
to the emphatic word the importance of greater time, either in 
the wave of the second, or third, or even fifth, and smoothly 
enhancing it by the swell of the median stress. It is not within 
our present purpose 3 but it might be added, that thou should 
have the wave of the second or third, to connect it both by 
quantity and intonation, under the emphatic tie, with sole ; and 
that, canst should be set at a ditone above thou, to assist the 
emphatic tie, in carrying on the voice and with it, the meaning 
of the line. The intonation here proposed, may be taken as an 
example of the reverentive or sentimentive style. 



Of the Vanishing U?nphasis. 

This form of stress is characterized by a degree of force, 
nearly equal to that of the radical emphasis. Why then are 
they distinguished from each other by name ? The radical is 
appropriate to immutable syllables ; the vanishing cannot be 
recognized on them, since some extent of quantity is required 



THE COMPOUND EMPHASIS. 427 

for its display; and though the hasty energy that prompts it, 
generally assigns it to a simple concrete, with just sufficient 
time for its application, still it is sometimes effectively made on 
the utmost extension of the simple movement, and on the wave. 
In the following examples, this inversion of the simple form 
of the concrete may be employed for the expression of angry 
impatience in the one case, and of threatening vengeance in the 
other. 

Oh ye Gods ! ye Gods ! must I endure all tins ! 



Oh ! that I had him, 
With six Aufidiuses, or more, his tribe, 
To use my lawful sword. 

The words here marked in italics, when pronounced with the 
vanishing stress, have that Irish provincialism which charac- 
terizes in a degree, this species of force ; the final abrupt ele- 
ment in these cases, contributing to the effect, by its occlusion. 

This form of stress is often used for an energetic, a peevish, 
or an angry question : since in this way, the extent of the 
interrogative interval, with its emphatic boundary, is more 
forcibly impressed on the ear. 

A cause of the peculiar expression of the vanishing emphasis, 
may be this. From the ordinary habit of the voice in the simple 
concrete, it is difficult to produce a final fulness and force, with- 
out giving rapidity of time to its execution: and this adapts it 
to the active state of mind represented by the vanishing stress. 
But we leave all suggestions of this kind, to the observation and 
reflection of others. 



Of the Compound Emphasis. 

A DEGREE of emphatic distinction by force, stronger than 
that of the preceding forms, may be applied to syllables of 

indefinite time ; for these, under the direction of a vehement 



428 THE COMPOUND EMPHASIS. 

state of mind, may receive their force from a union of both the 
radical and vanishing stress ; as in the following urgent call. 

Arm warriors arm for fight, the foe at hand, 
Whom fled we thought, will save us long pursuit 
This day. 

The imperative words here marked in italics, may receive 
this double form of stress, either on a wide downward interval, 
or an unequal-direct wave, with a wide downward constituent. 
The vanishing stress being here, on the subtonic m, requires 
more effort to produce its fulness, than when the final element 
is abrupt. The compound stress is however, more particularly 
appropriate to the forcible emphasis of an interrogation : and I 
here cite an example, from the scene of Hamlet's violence 
towards Laertes, at the grave of Ophelia. 

Dost thou come here to whine ? 

To outface me by leaping in her grave ? 

The great earnestness of these questions, calls for the Tho- 
rough interrogative intonation ; and the emphatic importance 
of the word whine, requires, or will admit the rising octave 
with the compound stress upon it. Thus the radical abruptness 
on i, sets forth the threatening rage of the Prince ; while the 
vanishing stress on n, conspicuously denotes the inquiry, by 
marking the extent of the interrogative interval. 

We do not here notice the aspiration, to be joined with the 
compound stress, for the expression of whatever contempt or 
scorn, the question may contain. 

It must be confessed however j the discrimination of this 
species of emphasis, in the current of pronunciation, is not so 
easy, as that of the preceding. Still it is heard in the voice. 
Its effect is peculiar ; and by deliberate analysis it is clearly 
referable to the above named constituents. 



THOROUGH EMPHASIS AND LOUD CONCRETE. 429 



Of the Emphasis of the Thorough Stress, and 
the Loud Concrete. 

In detailing the assignable forms and degrees of force, those 
of the Thorough stress, and the Loud concrete, were described 
as different from the rest, and from each other. 

But I am not disposed to insist upon the importance of these 
distinctions, for the practical purposes of elocution. They exist 
however, as forms of stress, and are, perhaps used as emphatic 
signs of thought or expression. Yet they are not, either in 
character or degree, when employed on short quantities, so 
distinguishable from the radical, and the compound stress, and 
from each other, as to require special exemplification. The 
peculiarity of these forms of stress, is relative to the time of 
syllables ; for when this is not so short as to require the radical 
stress, nor of sufficient length to admit of a prolonged applica- 
tion of force, the required distinction may be effected on such 
moderate quantities by the loud concrete, or the thorough stress, 
as in the marked syllables of the following example ; where the 
first may receive the former, and the second, the latter species 
of emphasis. 

This knows my Punisher: therefore as far 
From granting he, as I from begging peace. 

On this subject, let it be kept in mind, that although the 
thorough stress may be applied, under the limitation of c///j>Jk(- 
sis, to short, and occasionally to longer quantities ; yet when 
unusually extended, and when used in a current melody, it 
has that rustic coarseness, described in the thirty-ninth section. 



Of the Aspirated Emphasis. 

The earnestness and other expressive effects of aspiration, 
may be spread over a whole sentence. The same expression is 
sometimes restricted to a single word; thus constituting the 



430 THE EMPHATIC VOCULE. 

aspirated emphasis. Many words claim this emphasis from the 
essential energy of their meaning ; and these, in some cases 
have the literal symbol of aspiration, as havoc, horror, huzza. 
A similar remark may be made on some of the interjections. 
I need not quote instances of aspirated utterance in the excla- 
mations of passion, and in the pure breathing of a sigh ; the 
pages of the drama are full of examples. 

In the following dialogue from Julius Ccesar, the effect of 
aspiration in marking an earnest state of mind, is sufficiently 
obvious on the words ay, and fear, set in italics. 

Brutus. What means this shouting ? I do fear the people 

Choose Csesar for their king. 
Cassius. Ay, do you fear it? 

Then must I think you would not have it so. 

And again, in the Tent scene, the earnest repugnance of 
Cassius is manifested by an aspiration on the word chastise- 
ment. 

Brutus. The name of Cassius honors this corruption, 

And chastisement does therefore hide his head. 
Cassius. Chastisement ? 

When aspiration is combined with the vanishing stress on a 
simple concrete, or on the various forms of the wave, it conveys 
an expression of sneer, or contempt, or scorn. 

Aspiration may be applied to syllables of every variety of 
time, to all forms of force, and all intervals of intonation. 



Of the Emphatic Vocule. 

"When a word emphatic by force, terminates with an abrupt 
element, followed by a pause, that slight issue of sound called 
the Vocule, generally receives a continuation of the force ; and 
this, by its explosive effort, becomes the sign of passionative 
excitement. 

There are occasions on which this vocule may be used, with a 



THE GUTTURAL EMPHASIS. 431 

view to press into a syllable all the power of emphasis. But it 
comes so close to affectation, that I hesitated about its classifi- 
cation, as a fault, or as an assistant enforcement of speech. 

I will not say absolutely, it should be forcibly employed in 
the following line 3 from the close of the third scene, in the 
third act of Othello: but when the word hate, is pronounced 
with the stress required by the passionative state of the Moor, 
the emphatic vocule almost necessarily bursts from the organic 
opening of the atonic abrupt element. 

Yield up, love, thy crown, and hearted throne 
To tyrannous hale! swell, bosom, with thy fraught. 



Of the Guttural Empliasis. 

The excited mental states of disgust, aversion, execration, 
and horror, give their expression to an emphatic word, by 
joining the guttural vibration to other means of vocal distinc- 
tion. It is heard on the daily occasions for revolting inter- 
jectives ; and sometimes on the common current of syllabic 
utterance. It might be properly used on the word detestable, 
in the following lines, from that dreadful malediction upon 
Athens j at the opening of the fourth act of Shakspeare's 
Timon; taking care to accent the second syllable, which does 
not bear a stress, in the measure of the line. 

Nothing I'll bear from thee 
But nakedness, thou de/i'stable town ! 

When this guttural vibration is combined with the highesl 
powers <>f Btresa and aspiration, it produces the most impulsive 
blast of speech. 



4-32 THE TEMPORAL EMPHASIS. 



Of the Temporal Emphasis. 

When the quantity of an emphatic syllable is long, and 
admits of indefinite extension, when the word has only an anti- 
thetic, or a thoughtive meaning, without the force of passion, 
or when the distinction has the sole purpose of an emphatic 
tie j the impression may be made by the influence of time alone, 
as on co, in the following address. 

Hail holy Light, offspring of Heaven first-born, 
Or of the Eternal, coeternal beam, 
May I express thee unblamed ? 

Or more conspicuously, in Abdiel's warning to Satan. 

For soon expect to feel, 
His thunder on thy head, devouring fire. 
Then, who created thee lamenting learn, 
When who can wncreate thee thou shalt know. 

In this constellation of temporal emphases, the impressive 
long quantity of the accented syllable of thunder, and of de- 
vouring, is given as an instance of the emphatic tie ; in which 
the connection of two subjects separated by a clause, is shown 
in its true vocal syntax ; and by which any ludicrous image, 
from too ready an association between head and devouring fire, 
may be obviated. Perhaps it will be saidj these words, together 
with the others marked in italics as emphatic by quantity 
alone, might receive the additional distinction of a forceful, or 
of an intonated emphasis. But it may be learned from the 
speech at large, that Abdiel is no longer the i fervent angel ' 
contending with the apostate. He is now the herald of an 
Almighty Decree. The earnest persuasion, with the alternate 
hopes and fears of argument, has given place to thoughtive 
admonitions, and to the solemn declarations of an ordained judg- 
ment ; and the unimpassioned but conspicuous distinction by 
temporal emphasis appears well accommodated to the utterance 
of the ' unmoved, unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,' and pro- 
phetic Seraph. 



THE EMPHASIS OF PITCH. 433 

The reader must have observed the close connection between 
the various vocal constituents; and that with every attempt, it 
is impossible to represent each separately, in the necessary 
illustrations. We here speak of the simple extension of quan- 
tity as the means of emphasis, when in reality that quantity is 
in part effective, through the influence of some form of intona- 
tion. Extended time on interrogative syllables, on those of 
positiveness and command, or on a feeble cadence, has an into- 
nation, respectively, through the simple course of the upward 
or downward third, fifth, or octave. But in plain temporal 
emphasis, like that of the above example, and in a dignified 
diatonic melody, an extension of indefinite syllables, is always 
through the direct or inverted wave of the im impassioned 
second. 



Of the Emphasis of Pitch. 

It was stated generally, in speaking of the pitch of the voice, 
that its several forms are used as the means of emphasis. We 
should now proceed to the illustration of this subject ; but as 
the rising third, fifth, and octave, are signs of interrogation, 
and as they have this signification even when applied to but 
one word of a sentence, we may inquire j how the Interrogative 
character in discourse is to be distinguished from the Emphatic. 
There must be even to the common ear, something like an un- 
written rule, to which reference is unconsciously made ; for 
notwithstanding the frequent employment of these signs in their 
different meanings, these meanings are rarely confounded. But 
our discriminations on this subject have in time past been four- 
footed instincts; let us try to ennoble them, by giving them 
the support and the exalted step of knowledge and principles. 

The various interrogative sentences were named in the seven- 
teenth Bection ; and on that division, the discriminations are 
here made. 



434 THE EMPHASIS OF PITCH. 

In the first case. As the emphatic use of pitch is on a 
single word, or at most on two or three, there is no liability to 
mistake emphasis, for declarative questions with the thorough 
intonation. In the second. It was shown, that the partial 
interrogative expression is generally applied to common, pro- 
nominal, and adverbial questions. These, even with but a 
solitary third, or fifth, or octave, cannot possibly be confounded 
with cases of emphasis on these same intervals, in sentences 
without the grammatical structure of a question. How far it 
might be proper to consider a partial interrogation, made with 
a single interrogative interval, as conjoining the conditions of 
interrogation and of emphasis, thereby justifying the term 
Interrogative Emphasis 3 may be left for future inquiry and 
arrangement. In the third case. Many phrases having the 
form of a question, seem nevertheless to hang doubtfully 
between an interrogative and an assertive meaning. When 
such phrases can be fairly resolved into an interjective appeal, 
or a negative question, or one of belief 3 the positive state of 
mind generally calls for an intonation in the downward con- 
crete, as shown in the thirty-second section. With these ques- 
tions emphasis by a rising interval cannot be confounded. The 
following examples are by editorial punctuation marked as 
questions ; but the conditions above stated seem to apply so 
clearly to them, that I would exclude the interrogative inter- 
vals, and express these virtual affirmations by a positive down- 
ward intonation. 

What should he in that Coesar ? 
Why should that name be sounded more than yours? 



Casta. What night is this ? 

Cassius. A very pleasing night to honest men. 
Casca. Who ever knew the heavens menace so ? 



Shyloch. Ay, his breast: 

So says the bond! Doth it not noble judge? 
Nearest his heart, those are the very words. 



EMPHASIS OF TIIE RISING OCTAVE. 435 

In the first of these instances, Cassius does positively mean, 
There is nothing in Caesar, nor in his name. In the second, 
Casca would say, It is a dreadful night; the heavens were 
never known to menace so. And in the last, Shylock, by his 
negative question, does triumphantly declare, You know it, 
noble judge. If then instead of the positive, the interrogative 
intonation should be applied either thoroughly or in part, to 
these phrases, their meaning would be obscured, or lost. Con- 
sequently, no case of rising emphasis can be mistaken for such 
interrogative constructions. "When figurative questions 3 those 
of grammatical construction, with a downward intonation $ and 
when real exclamatory sentences, carry their expression on 
one or two downward intervals, it may be made a subject for 
future inquiry, whether this case might be called the Exclama- 
tory Emphasis. 

We go on to enumerate the intervals of pitch, employed in 
emphasis. 



Of the Emphasis of the Rising Octave. 

The concrete rise of the Octave on a single syllable in a 
current diatonic melody, remarkably distinguishes that syllable 
from others bearing the interval of a tone ; and its effect has 
the true character of emphasis, even without the excessive 
stress, heretofore considered almost the single essential, in the 
definition of that term. 

The reader has been told more than oncej the intervals of the 
scale arc appreciable, even in the momentary flight of an immu- 
table syllable; and that the expression of the octave on these 
syllable- is generally effected by a skip of radical pitch, from 
tlic level of current speech to the hight of that interval above it. 
The emphasis of the octave appears then, under the form both 
of Slow Concrete, and of* Radical Change; and let it be under- 
stood, that one of these different forms of pitch is always 



436 EMPHASIS OF THE RISING OCTAVE. 

implied, when we speak of the emphasis of other wider intervals 
of the scale. 

The rising octave is employed emphatically, for the expression 
of astonishment and admiration, embracing inquiry or doubt ; 
and for the especial enforcing of one word above others, in an 
interrogative sentence : but this indeed rarely ; for there is a 
kind of mewl in its long-drawn concrete, that excludes it from 
those elevated purposes of speech which it is the design of 
science to investigate, and of taste to approve. 

The octave sometimes expresses a quick, a taunting, or a 
mirthful interrogative ; and is perhaps never used in a calm, 
serious, and dignified question. It would perhaps be admissible 
in the following sneering exultation of Shylock over Antonio. 

Monies is your suit. 
What should I say to you? should I not say? 
Hath a dog money? Is it possible 
A cur can lend three thousand ducats? 

From the temper of the two last questions, they will bear a 
thorough interrogative intonation ; but the words dog, and cur, 
by an emphatic allusion to the previous rating of Shylock by 
Antonio, convey the exultation of revenge 3 as well as an imme- 
diate antithesis to their former contemptuous application, by 
being run up to the keenness of the octave. Perhaps some readers 
might be disposed to set a more dignified form of intonation on 
these questions, by considering them as Appealing ; and by 
employing a general current of downward thirds, with a down- 
ward octave on dog, and cur. I only say, they will bear the 
assigned intonation, without making preference the subject of 
argument ; though the manifest sneer seems to claim the rising 
intonation. The readings proposed throughout this essay are 
for illustration ; and their purpose may be fulfiled, although 
they may not exactly accord with common opinion. There is a 
best in the works of every art ; but the latitude of admissible 
variation, within the reach of principles, has an ample and 
liberal scope, that sometimes generously admits even cases of 
unsuccessful search after the highest excellence. Over such 



EMPHASIS OF THE RISING FIFTH. 437 

failures, the intelligent critic of another age will be neither 
quarrelsome nor severe. 

The emphasis of the octave by a change of radical pitch, is 
exemplified in the following lines : 

'Zounds, show me what thou'lt do: 

Vfoo't weep? woo't fight ? woo' t fast? woo't tear thyself? 

The exasperated energy of Hamlet, in his encounter with 
Laertes, calls for the highest pitch of interrogation on the words 
here marked ; but these words do not admit of the slow concrete. 
To fulfil the purposes of expression, they are to be immediately 
transferred by radical change to an octave above the word 
woo't, which in its several places, is at the common level of the 
melody. The emphatic syllable, when thus raised, is still 
further indued with the character of an interrogative interval, 
by the rapid flight of the concrete octave, described in the seven- 
teenth section. In the first seven words of the second line the 
voice does skip, alternately ascending and descending, between 
the extremes of an octave. 

While these lines are before us, we may notice the contrast 
between the two movements of pitch in the octave ; for the word 
tear, having an indefinite quantity, admits freely of the slow 
concrete ; and the voice after being restrained to the discrete 
skip, on the preceding immutable syllables, more freely, and 
with graceful contrast assumes on this word, the intonation of 
a concrete or continuous rise. 



Of the Emphasis of the Rising Fifth. 

Tin relation of the concrete fifth to the octave, in their 
interrogative character, was formerly shown. As a siem both 

J to 

Of emphatic thought «r of passion, the fifth is less impressive 
than the octave ; from not having its piercing influence. There 
is however, more dignity in the importance it gives to a syllable. 

In the following lines, from Satan's address to the sun, the 



488 EMPHASIS OF THE RISING- FIFTH. 

emphasis on thee, may be made by the concrete rising fifth, for 
the expression of its exultation. 

Evil be thou my good : by thee at least 
Divided empire with Heaven's king I hold. 

It is said here, and we allow the same cautious latitude for 
other cases, that a certain form of emphatic expression may be 
employed ; since on many occasions, the emphasis may be 
varied. Thus in the present example, the syllable thee, might 
be in the wave of the fifth, or third, or even the second ; in the 
last case however, a want of the peculiar expression of the fifth, 
must be supplied by a long quantity, and by the use of the 
radical, or median, or vanishing stress, on the wave of the 
second so employed. Nay, we will go further with the liberal 
construction allowed by every broad and self-confiding system ; 
and under the principles of this work, are ready to accord with 
the free-will of any enlightened taste, which in the above 
example might prefer even the positive emphasis of a downward 
interval. And this, not inconsistently ; for under the reason- 
able rules of a well ordered system, such variations will always 
be made according to the good sense that allows them. 

In the following lines, the emphasis of the fifth on the word 
beauty, is perhaps not absolutely unchangeable ; but it certainly 
produces a brightness of picture, well adapted to the sentimen- 
tive character, and which cannot perhaps be so well effected in 
any other way. 

Tears like the rain-drops may fall without measure, 
But rapture and beauty they cannot recall. 

The effect in this case will be more finished, if after the con- 
crete rise of the syllable beau, through the fifth j ty be discretely 
brought down to the line of the current melody. It may be 
added, that from the transposed order of syllabic quantity, a 
reversed order of intonation may be set on rapture ; for a 
discrete rising skip of the fifth may be made with rap, and a 
concrete return to .the current melody on ture. 

The emphasis of the fifth, by a skip of radical pitch, is 



EMPHASIS OF THE RISING THIRD. 439 

further exemplified in the line, formerly quoted to show the 
radical stress. 

Which, if not victory, is yet revenge. 

Here the abrupt stress on vie, requires and receives assist- 
ance from intonation, by setting that short syllable at a dis- 
crete fifth above the place of not: for this gives expressive 
emphasis ; while a downward return to the current melody on 
to, closes the line with the effect, though not with the full form, 
of a prepared cadence. 



Of the Emphasis of the Rising Third. 

TnE striking intonation of the octave and the fifth is suited 
to the earnest interests and replications of colloquial speech, 
and to the forcible thoughts and passions of the drama. The 
rise of the third, though still denoting severally, both interro- 
gation and emphasis, produces a less intense, but a more digni- 
fied impression. 

The rise of the third may be set on the word he, in the fol- 
lowing lines. 

Who first seduced them to that foul revolt? 
The infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile, 
Stirred up with envy and revenge. 

And we may add, that the words infernal serpent, being a 
positive answer to the question, should have the downward 
intonation, both for contrast to the rising third, on he* and for 
emphatic wonder at the revengeful guile of the seducer. 

There are some phrases simply interrogative: and unaccom- 
panied by those states of mind usually associated with the 
octave and the fifth. The emphatic distinction in these Cases, 
is made witli the moderately attractive influence of the third. 

Dost thou think Alexander looked o' (his fashion, 
i' the earth t 



440 EMPHASIS OF THE KISING SEMITONE. 

If in this example, Alexander, this fashion, and earth, be 
taken as emphatic, the distinction will be appropriately made 
by the third. Should the intonation on these words be in the 
wider interval of the fifth or octave, it would imply an eagerness 
of inquiry, and a light familiarity of address, not suggested by 
the sense of the question, nor consistent with the temper of 
Hamlet's moralizing reflections. 

It is scarcely necessary to illustrate the radical skip of the 
third, in relation to emphasis. The word victory, in a preced- 
ing example, may be executed on this discrete interval, if the 
reader should think the fifth, there employed, too high ; for it 
will exemplify either case, according to the degree of energy 
ascribed to it. 

The third, as shown in the sixteenth section, is employed on 
the emphatic words of conditional, concessive, and hypothetical 
phrases. 

The minor third, together with the rest of the minor scale, is 
the essential means of plaintiveness in song ; but it is not to 
be used in the system of speaking-intonation, set-forth in this 
work ; and since this system regards it as a fault in speech, 
when heard, as it not unfrequently is, we cannot give it a place, 
in the history of emphasis. 



Of the Emphasis of the Rising Semitone. 

I OMIT here, a notice of the tone or second. The reader 
must now, be so well acquainted with the character of the dia- 
tonic melody, as to perceive, that the simple rise of a tone, having 
no attractive or peculiar expression, cannot, by pitch alone, be 
emphatic. Indeed, the more impressive intervals, when not 
compared among themselves, are emphatic only by their con- 
trast with the thoughtive current of the second. It is true, a 
syllable is made emphatic by quantity ; and that quantity in 
plain and dignified utterance, is commonly a prolongation 
through the doubling of the second into the form of a wave. 
But the impressiveness is here an effect of time, not of intonation. 



EMPHASIS OF THE RISING SEMITONE. 441 

As the semitone has a peculiar expression, it can fulfil the 
condition of emphasis, when laid upon a single word in the 
course of a diatonic melody. We have an instance of this, in 
the first line of Hamlet's soliloquy: 

0, that this too, too solid flesh would melt, 
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew ! 

These words are prompted by three different states of 
mind. 0, that this solid flesh would melt, is optative ; this 
too solid flesh, is declarative that it cannot change ; and the 
second too. is plaintive under the repeated declaration. The 
whole is in the sentimentive style. In these states, Hamlet 
implores with becoming seriousness, that his living frame may 
be resolved into a dew ; yet admits the too-solid necessity, with 
a declared conviction of its impossibility. Under the hard fate 
of this conviction, he repeats the word too, with a plaintive 
dispondency, which requires and beautifully sad, receives a 
slowly prolonged and slightly tremulous wave of the semitone. 

It rarely happens however, that this semitonic expression is 
found thus insulated : for the plaintiveness which directs a sin- 
gle word, generally spreads its effect over the whole of the 
phrase or sentence ; thus constituting the chromatic melody, 
and thereby destroying the solitary importance, or proper em- 
phasis of the semitone. 

It may then be asked j how emphasis when required, can be 
effected in a chromatic melody. It may be done by stress in 
its various forms, and by time ; for the semitone is set on syl- 
lables of every quantity. It may likewise be effected by intona- 
tion, in the following manner. 

When a syllable calls for the emphasis of a wider pitch in a 
chromatic melody, that emphasis cannot be a simple concrete 
rise or fall through the second, third, fifth, or eighth ; for these 
movements, by over-sliding the measure of a semitone, would 
destroy the plaintiveness, which by the conditions of the case 
should be heard. Yet, should a syllable of the chromatic 
melody be elevated by a discrete radical change, from the level 
of the current, to a third, fifth, or octave above it; and when 
20 



442 EMPHASIS OF THE DOWNWARD CONCRETE. 

thus raised, be there uttered however rapidly, through the 
interval of a semitone, the plaintive or chromatic character will 
be preserved ; and since the syllable, by a transfer of the radi- 
cal pitch, is advanced to a higher point of the scale, its semi- 
tone by the additional means of this acuteness in position is 
conspicuously impressed on the ear, and thus fully conforms to 
the definition of emphasis. 



Of the Emphasis of the Downward Concrete. 

The downward movement of the voice expresses positiveness 
and surprise, and on a single long syllable, forms the feeble 
cadence. We are now to consider the manner of employing 
this concrete, for the purpose of emphasis, on one or more 
words, in a current melody. 

The wider downward concrete is a very common form of em- 
phatic distinction, and exerts a powerful attraction over the 
ear. It cannot however, for a plain reason, be used in sen- 
tences of thorough interrogative intonation ; nor is it, in its 
simple forms employed in the chromatic melody. When neces- 
sary in this latter case, for denoting surprise or positiveness, it 
may be introduced as a constituent of the unequal wave ; for 
the rise of a semitone as the first constituent, will preserve the 
plaintiveness ; and a subsequent continuation downward through 
the eighth, or fifth, or third, will join to this plaintiveness, the 
required emphasis of the falling concrete. 

When we had occasion in its proper place, to speak of the 
descent of the voice both by concrete and by radical pitch 5 that 
descent was represented, as taking place, only from the line of 
the current melody. It is now necessary to describe the par- 
ticular manner of its movement in emphasis. In the twenty- 
second section, a notation is given of the following line : 

Seems, madam, nay, it is! I know not seems. 

In that notation, one of its emphatic syllables is marked with 
a downward fifth ; the concrete appearing on the staff, with its 



EMPHASIS OF THE DOWNWARD CONCRETE. 443 

radical the whole extent of that interval above the current 
melody. I then merely pointed out the peculiarity ; not wish- 
ing, in that view of the downward concrete, to anticipate the 
history of its application to the especial subject of the present 
section. 

Should the word is, in the above line, be uttered as a feeble 
cadence, by the descent of a third from the line of the current 
melody, as if it were the close of a sentence, it would not have 
the impressive effect, required by the sense. It cannot then, 
be a simple descent of the voice from the line of a current 
melody, which gives an emphatic character to this downward 
movement. 

The full effect of the concrete, in this case, is produced by 
commencing its radical, on a line of pitch above the current 
melody, and descending to that line or below it, according to 
the degree of expression. The hight at which the outset or 
radical of the descending concrete is to be taken, depends on 
the degree of positiveness or surprise, designed in the emphasis. 
That the expressive effect of the downward concrete proceeds 
from its affinity in form with the cadence, I will not assert. 
There seems however, to be something like an ultimate affirma- 
tion implied in a very positive emphasis ; it being as much as 
to say, this affirmation is beyond doubt, then let the subject 
here be closed. 

It may perhaps be asked j why the downward vanish, em- 
phatically used in the current melody, does not produce the 
effect of a cadence, and thus interrupt the continuous thought 
or expression of discourse. Let it be recollected j the feeblest 
form of the cadence consists in the concrete descent through 
the third ; consequently the downward emphasis can at most, 
amount but to this feeble form. Again, the proper cadence is 
continued downward from the line of the current melody; 
whereas the emphatic downward concrete, begins on a degree 
of the scale above the line of the melody, and does not always 
descend below it. 

And further: speech has two means for conveying the men- 
tal states of thought and passion. One, by a conventional Ian- 



444 EMPHASIS OF THE DOWNWARD OCTAVE. 

guage, which to the eye as well as the ear, can describe them 
all. The other, by the various Modes and forms of the voice, 
that instinctively express many of these thoughts, and passions, 
when engrafted on words. Now a spoken cadence is denoted, 
both by the vocal sign, in its three descending radicals, with 
the final falling concrete ; and by a conventional language, in 
the meaning of the words that terminate the sentence. Thus 
the intonation of the cadence, together with the meaning and 
structure of the phrase, and with the pause, always marks the 
close. Consequently, an emphatic downward vanish in the 
course of the melody, can never be confounded with its termi- 
nation. 

The downward emphasis by discrete radical pitch, has the 
same character as the downward concrete, and is employed for 
a skip on an immutable syllable. 

The reason for the downward emphasis taking its radical 
pitch, so far above the line of the current melody, must be ob- 
vious on considering, that by a descent merely from the line of 
that current, the octave, the fifth, and perhaps the third would 
in some cases be inaudible 3 and always too feeble for the de- 
mands of these impressive downward intervals. 



Of the Emphasis of the Downward Octave. 

After what has been said generally of the downward em- 
phasis, it is scarcely necessary to state, that the octave on a 
long syllable gives the strongest degree of this species of empha- 
sis. The word hell, in the following lines, requires the octave. 

So frown'd the mighty combatants, that Hell 
Grew darker at their frown. 

This is taken from that fine picture of threatful hostility 
between Satan and Death, in the Second book of Paradise 
Lost. And whoever would give this part with a forcible and 
somewhat dramatic effect, will find it difficult to bring out the 
full meaning of the poet, except by the above directed intona- 






EMPHASIS OF THE DOWNWARD OCTAVE. 44-") 

tion. The meaning, if we may interpret it, is not to represent 
simply, without marking its degree, an increase of darkness 
produced by the figurative gloom of the brows of the combatants. 
Such a picture would be too tame and trite for this dreadful 
edge of battle. The thought becomes worthy of the occasion, 
when the frowns are said to be able to blacken the deep darkness 
even of Hell. It is not to our purpose to remark here, that a 
strong downward emphasis on darker, completes the expressive 
meaning of the Poet. 

The above forcible intonation is produced by the concrete 
pitch of the downward octave : and as the downward concrete 
emphasis always commences at a higher pitch than that of the 
current melody, so with the downward emphasis on immutable 
syllables, the change of radical pitch is likewise from an 
assumed point above the current melody. This may be illus- 
trated by the following example from the second book of 
Milton : 

Far less abhor'd than these 
Yex'd Scylia, bathing in the sea that parts 
Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore. 

Others may please themselves, with their own vocal expres- 
sion of this first line ; I can satisfy my ear, only by a concrete 
rising octave denoting an exaggerated surprise, on far ; then a 
descent by the radical pitch of an octave, to less, for the em- 
phatic expression of the degree of abhorrence, on that com- 
parative word ; thus returning to the level of the radical of far, 
in the line of the current melody. It is not the place, but I 
may say here, that ab is to be raised an octave by radical pitch, 
and hor'd returned by a downward concrete, of that same inter- 
val; thus completing the forcible expression, by a falling and 
a rising discrete skip, on less and ab, between a rising and a 
falling concrete, on far and hor'd. 

A similar intonation is appropriate to the line that follows in 
the text of the poem. 

Nor uglier follow the night-hag. 



446 EMPHASIS OF THE DOWNWARD FIFTH. 

Here, nor rises by a concrete octave ; ^descends discretely 
by that same interval ; while U 9 from the expression not being 
so strong as in the preceding case, may either rise by the discrete 
third, or fifth, and then descend by its concrete, on er to the 
level of nor, in the current melody ; or Her, slurred as it were 
into one syllable, may receive the direct wave of one of these 
intervals. 

In these examples, nothing is said of the stress, or aspiration, 
necessary for the full vocal display of their expression. We 
here regard only the downward movement. 

If it may be asked 3 why this emphasis of downward radical 
pitch has not the effect of a cadencial close ; it may be 
answered 3 it has indeed somewhat the effect of a cadence ; but 
it is still an imperfect one, and not sufficient for a full termina- 
tion of discourse. For the descent is from a point assumed 
above the current line, and its downward reach is to about the 
level of that line ; whereas the true and final cadence is made 
by a descent of two radicals below the current melody. Add 
to this, the reason given in a preceding page, why the emphasis 
of the downward concrete is not liable to be confounded with 
the cadence ; since like it, the downward discrete emphasis is 
readily distinguishable from the cadence, by the words, and 
meaning, and pause, that denote the proper close. 



Of the Emphasis of the Downward Fifth. 

The similarity of this interval to the octave, the difference 
consisting in degree only, renders it unnecessary to do more, 
than quote a phrase in which the less energetic emphasis of the 
downward fifth may be employed. The word well, in the fol- 
lowing lines, from that brief and beautiful address to the City 



EMPHASIS OF THE DOWNWARD FIFTH. 447 

of London, at the close of the Third book of Cowper's Task, 
may receive the emphatic downward concrete of the fifth. 

Ten righteous would have saved a city once, 
And thou bast many righteous. Well for thee, 
That salt preserves thee ; more corrupted else, 
And therefore more obnoxious at this hour, 
Than Sodom in her day had power to be, 
For whom God heard his Abraham plead in vain. 

The radical change of the downward fifth may be made on 
the word subject, in the following lines, from the first act of 
Julius Ca } .sar. In the second scene, Cassius after exciting 
Brutus to a proud declaration of his love of honor, con- 
tinues j 

I know that virtue to be in you, Brutus, 
As well as I do know your outward favor. 
Well, honor is the subject of my story. 

If this is allowed to be the emphatic word, the meaning here 
conveyed, that honor is positively, the very matter he desires 
to speak of, must be expressed by a downward intonation on the 
word subject. But the accented syllable of this word is too 
short to bear the prolonged and slower concrete. The effect is 
therefore to be accomplished through a discrete descent, by 
assuming the first syllable sub, at a fifth above the current 
melody, and returning to the line of that melody, on ject, by 
the radical skip of a fifth. Some other form of emphasis on 
this word may, in a manner, mark a kind of apposition in the 
terms, lionor and subject ; yet to an ear of judgment and taste, 
perhaps Done will give so striking a picture of the identity, as 
the intonation, here proposed. 



448 EMPHASIS OF THE DOWNWARD THIRD. 



Of the JEmjihasis of the Downward Third. 

The downward Third expresses a more moderate degree of 
the state of mind, conveyed by the octave, and fifth. Thus in 
the following reply of Hamlet, the word Queen does not seem 
to require a stronger emphatic distinction, than that of a falling 
third. 

Queen. Have you forgot me ? 

Ham. No, by the rood, not so : 

You are the Queen, your husband's brother's wife. 

Here we may again notice the difference above referred to, in 
the effect of the downward third, when employed as a cadence, 
and as emphasis > and it is a striking illustration of this 
difference. In the former case, if the word Queen should 
descend concretely, from the line of the current melody to a 
third below it, the sentence might pass for a complete one, 
terminated at that point by the feeble cadence. In the latter, 
when the radical of this syllable skips to a third above the cur- 
rent line, and then descends concretely to that line, in the 
manner of emphasis, it does not even with a subsequent pause, 
produce the like effect of a close, but rather suggests the idea 
of a continuation of the sentence. 

The emphasis of the downward radical change of the third, 
may be made by a transition from that to too, in the following 
phrase. 

Cassius. They shouted thrice ; what was the last cry for ? 
Casca. Why, for that too. 

Here the word that is to be taken a third above the line of the 
current melody ; and too, at the level of its line. 

It was said formerly 3 the prepared cadence is produced by 
the downward radical of a third on a short syllable, or by a 
downward concrete third, on a long one, preceding the triad. 
Now although the preparatory descent either by radical, or 
concrete pitch, is to a third below the current melody, still this 



EMPHASIS OF THE DOWNWARD TIIIED. 449 

descent alone does not produce a close. For the syllable, after 
falling through this discrete third, does not necessarily cud 
with the downward tone required at a close ; and it will be 
recollected, that even this downward discrete skip of a third, at 
the end of a sentence, was called a false cadence, from its not 
having the characteristic of a full and perfect close ; and in the 
concrete preparation for the cadence, the descent can have, at 
most, the effect of only a feeble cadence. Consider further j 
the structure and meaning of the phraseology have a share of 
influence, in denoting the close. This downward radical skip of 
the prepared cadence, has in part the effect of emphasis, by 
forcibly impressing on the ear the most complete termination of 
the sentence.* 



The downward Second, whether concrete or discrete, being a 
constituent of the diatonic melody, has no emphatic power. It 
gives variety to the current, by occasionally taking the place of 
the rising interval ; and by its concrete on the last constituent 
of a falling tritone, makes the triad of the cadence. 



The downward Semitone has peculiarity, sufficient for a strong 
emphatic distinction : but I am not aware of its being ever 
introduced alone, into the diatonic melody ; and in the chro- 
matic, it serves only the purpose of variety, similar to that of 
the downward second in the diatonic current. 

• Let not the reader, on this hint, unnecessarily multiply terms, and call this 
the Emphatic cadence, or the Cadencial emphasis. 



450 EMPHASIS OF THE WAVE. 



Of the Emphasis of the Wave. 

The junction of opposite concretes by its positive effect upon 
the ear, gives emphatic distinction to syllables and words. 

If a history of the voice, should be written, from the practice 
of the mass of readers, and not from cultivated and rare exam- 
ples of excellence, it would be necessary to add a Melody of 
the Wave to that of the diatonic and chromatic ; since many, 
and some of the world's great readers and actors too, apply the 
intonation of wider waves, to every long and emphatic syllable. 
This, to say the least of it as a fault, gives the impressive effect 
of the wave to a whole sentence, and prevents its employment 
as the means of emphasis on a single word. 

The wave, according to its form, expresses admiration, sur- 
prise, inquiry, mirthful wonder, sneer and scorn ; and is empha- 
tically used on long quantities, embracing these states of mind. 

The dignified diatonic melody is made by the wave of the 
second ; and this is only a method of adding the gravity of its 
last constituent, the downward second, to the lighter effect of 
the previous ascent of that interval ; and of producing at the 
same time the length of syllable, so essential to solemn utter- 
ance, without the risk of falling into the protracted note of 
song. But the wave of the second never performs the part of 
emphasis, by its intonation alone. Waves of wider intervals in 
giving time and dignity to utterance, by doubling the concrete 
of which they are respectively composed, have besides, a strik- 
ing peculiarity when used for emphatic distinction, in the dia- 
tonic melody. 

Emphatic words of scorn in dignified discourse are denoted 
by the vanishing stress, or by aspiration, joined with either the 
simple rise or fall of a wider concrete, or with the direct or 
inverted form of its single wave. For there is a degree of 
levity and familiarity in the double wave, unsuitable to dignity 
of style. 

In considering the emphasis of the wave, it is not my inten- 
tion to illustrate all its forms. If the reader calls to mind 



EMPHASIS OF THE EQUAL WAVE. 451 

our history of this expressive sign, he may be able to do it for 
himself: and there are too many varieties of the wave to 
justify an entire enumeration of them. I shall name a few of 
its forms. 



Of the Emiiliasis of the Equal-single-direct Wave 
of the Octave. 

The Equal-single-direct wave of the octave actively expresses 
admiration and surprise ; and when hightened by aspiration, 
the vanishing stress, or guttural vibration, has the additional 
meaning of sneer and scorn. There is a difference in the effect 
of this sign on a low and on a high pitch. In the latter case, it 
has more of the character of raillery, or mirthful comment than 
of wonder, positiveness, or admiration. 

It was said 5 the wave of the octave, restricted to the lower 
range of pitch, might be used in grave discourse. Under this 
view, the first syllable of the following well-known line, from 
Hamlet, might receive the emphasis of this expressive into- 
nation : 

Angels and ministers of grace defend us ! 

This exclamation embraces astonishment, and the purpose of 
invocation. The positiveness of invocation requires the down- 
ward movement ; while astonishment, which in this case, implies 
something of inquiry or doubt, assumes the upward. But the 
invocation appears to be the engrossing interest; and thus, for 
their respective expression, the syllable An should have the 
Intonation of the direct wave; for this, by its rising interval 
gives ill*' doubtful astonishment, and by its subsequent fall, the 
final and more powerful impression of the invocation. 

In the following notation of this exclamatory sentence, I have 
set the direct wave of the octave on the first syllable .1//, which 
as an indefinite quantity, beautifully receives it. On grace an 
emphatic radical skip is made to a fifth above the current 



452 EMPHASIS OF THE EQUAL WAVE. 

melody, with a subsequent rapid concrete of the downward 
fifth ; for the time of this word will not bear the slow concrete 
of that interval. The other syllables have, in the diagram, the 
concrete, and the radical pitch of a tone ; and the Triad of the 
cadence, with a downward concrete to each constituent : and 
yet for a full expression of the state of mind they may take-on, 
and perhaps, do require a radical transfer to the upper line, 
with a rapid concrete of some wider falling intervals, as we 
described this form of intonation, in the seventeenth section ; 
thus to contribute their positive, but fainter influence, to that of 
the two emphatic words ; the whole, with the exception of the 
rise on the first syllable, being expressive of the earnestness of 
the invocation.* 

min — is — ters of grace de — fend us! 




fTT 



*I may here refer to the gesture, appropriate to this exclamatory wave. In 
fancying the Enacting of this exclamation, I see the arms each in horror tossed 
up alike 'on end,' with palm and finger broadly spread-out in protective repul- 
sion. The practice of the Stage, after more than two hundred years' close study 
of the Part, does not accord with this view of it. What intonation is given to 
An by great popular Actors, I have never, though closely listening, been able 
to trace : while their belief, that such intonation cannot be taught, has thus far 
kept them from hearing enough, to tell us. This syllable together with the 
whole line is, on the appearance of the Ghost, so suddenly shot-out, that the 
report is in-and-out of hearing in a moment. Astonishment and Invocation, on 
instinctive vocal interjections, are generally if not always, made on long quan- 
tity : and we see how admirably the word angels is used by the Poet, to give 
'smoothness to the torrent' of exclamation on its emphatic syllable. But the 
Actor's violence and hurry seem to be directed by anger and impatience, 
enforced in the vehement trick of striking off his bonnet. If the bonnet is to 
drop by the agitation of horror, let the true personating of horror throw it off, 
not a dextrous maneuver, when the hands should be fixed, or only trembling 
aghast. I would not here wish to insinuate, that the bonnet is cast off, to turn 
aside or confuse a scrutiny of the faults of intonation and gesture ; since with that 
' genius ' and accomplishment, which the Great Actor is supposed to admire and 
affect 3 consciousness of error, is immediately followed by an attempt to correct 



EMPHASIS OF THE EQUAL WAVE. 453 

"When the single-equal wave of the octave is inverted, the 
emphasis has the character of interrogation, from the ascent of 
the last constituent. 



Of the Emphasis of the Equal-single-direct Wave 
of the Fifth. 

This form of the wave carries a less degree of affirmation', 
and surprise, than that of the octave ; as in the following 
example, from the contest between Satan and Death. 

And breath'st defiance here and scorn, 

Where I reign king ? and to enrage thee more, 

Thy king and lord! 

Whoever will read, with its proper dramatic effect, the whole 
scene in Milton's Second book, from which these lines are 
taken, will find 5 the wave now under consideration may be set 
on the syllable thy, as a full expression of the positiveness, 
vaunting authority, and self-admiration, on the part of Death. 

To show the difference in character, between this direct wave 
and its inverted form, let the latter be substituted in the above 
reading. The interrogative effect produced by the ascent of its 
last constituent, will not only obscure the expression of the poet, 
but absolutely cross out his meaning ; for it will seem to make 
Death insinuate a question, when he intends to be unanswerably 
affirmative. 

it ; but certainly, nine-tenths if not more, of what ought at that moment to be 
a listening Audience, are by forcible distraction, made to be only Spectators of 
a Cap-trap on the floor. 

Since the dale of our fourth edition, I have seen an Actor, excellent in many 
points, quite carefully hand his cap to an attendant. Oh, worse still! >Vo 
have now, time and quiet to muse upon ths transfer : But, ' Zounds ! how had 
he leisure,' to think upon it calmly then. 



454 EMPHASIS OF THE UNEQUAL WAVE. 

We need not give an example of the wave of the Third in its 
equal-single form. If we suppose a reduced degree of its 
expression j all that was said of the character of the wave of the 
fifth, both direct and inverted, may be ascribed to the wave of 
this interval. It is more commonly employed than the fifth. 



Of the Emphasis of the Unequal-single Wave. 

It was said formerly 3 the unequal wave is used for the 
expression of admiration and surprise, or of inquiry, according 
to its direct or its inverted course. With a wide variation of 
the relative extent of its constituents, and its union with aspira- 
tion, or vanishing stress, or guttural vibration, it becomes a 
forcible sign of scorn. The last word of the following con- 
temptuous retort of Coriolanus, on the Yolcian General who had 
called him a 'boy of tears,' might perhaps be given as an 
instance of the ascent of a fifth, and the subsequent continuous 
descent of an octave. 

False hound ! 
If you have writ your annals true, 'tis there 
That, like an eagle in a dove-cote, I 
Fluttered your Voices in Corioli; 
Alone I did it. Boy. 

It is not here the place, to notice the strong aspiration neces- 
sary to express the scornful state of the speaker. I have heard 
this syllable pronounced on the Stage, with the simple downward 
emphasis. But there is more cool wonder and self-satisfaction 
in this intonation, than belongs to the vexed pride of the 
Roman, and to his vehement retort of a charge of inconstancy, 
which he must have half-acknowledged to himself. 

In the following lines, from the contention between Brutus 
and Cassius, the word yea may bear a direct-unequal wave, 



EMPHASIS OF THE UNEQUAL WAVE. 455 

consisting of the rise of a tone or third continued into the fall 
of a third or fifth. 

For, from this day forth, 
I'll use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter, 
When you are waspish. 

If this word be given without aspiration, vanishing stress, or 
guttural vibration, the expression will perhaps, scarcely differ 
from that of the equal wave. The sneer must therefore depend 
on a union of some one or more of these several vocal signs, 
with the simple utterance. 

The intonation of complaint, on the word ivrong, at its second 
place, in the following line, may be taken as an example of the 
emphasis of an unequal wave, with its first constituent, a semi- 
tone, and its second, a downward third or fifth, according to 
the force required by the plaintive appeal. 

You wrong me every way, you wrong me, Brutus. 

I do not give an illustration of the double wave of wider 
intervals. Serious and elevated discourse can have all its pur- 
poses of thought and passion fulfiled without it ; and it is not 
the design of this essay, to point out to children and drolls, the 
scientific mode of derisively imitating the surprise of their 
neighbors, by the curling mockery of this vulgar intonation. 
How far the double wave of the second may be employed, for 
temporal emphasis, I leave others to determine. 



There is little to be said, on what, in the forty-first section, we 
call the Time of the concrete, as a means of emphasis. Its varia- 
tions are really perceptible by strict attention ; but they are BO 
closely united with the forms of stress, that a separate conside- 
ration of them is unnecessary. 



456 EMPHASIS OF THE TREMOR. 



Of the Emphasis of the Tremor. 

The tremor may be applied to a limited succession of sylla- 
bles, and thus in a manner, constitute small portions of a tremu- 
lous melody. We have here to consider its occasional applica- 
tion to one or two words, in the current of speech. 

The tremor on a single tonic, or subtonic element, in any 
interval except the semitone, is the sign of laughter ; and con- 
sequently in syllabic utterance joins to the emphatic sense of 
the words, the expression of joy and admiration. 

Thou art the ruins of the noblest man, 
That ever lived in the tide of times. 

There is a degree of dignified exultation, and a superlative 
compliment in this eulogy, that cannot be properly expressed 
by the simple movement of the concrete. The first syllable of 
the emphatic word noblest, uttered with the tremulous intona- 
tion of the wave of the third or second, on the subtonic n, as 
well as the tonic o, gives a vocal consummation to the earnest- 
ness of the reverentive state of the speaker. 

The tremor of the semitone or its waves, on a single tonic 
element, constitutes the function of crying. In the chromatic 
melody, it gives a marked distinction to emphatic words of 
tenderness, grief, supplication, and other related states of 
mind. 

The following lines from a dramatic part of Paradise Lost, 
in the tenth book; if read with the personal action of the 
dialogue, call for the highest coloring of the semitone, and of 
the tremulous movement. 

Forsake me not thus, Adam ! witness, Heaven, 
What love sincere and reverence in my heart 
I bear thee, and unweeting have offended, 
Unhappily deceived ! Thy suppliant, 
I beg, and clasp thy knees ; bereave me not, 
"Whereon I live, thy gentle looks, thy aid, 
Thy counsel, in this uttermost distress, 



EMPHASIS OF THE TREMOR. 457 

My only strength and stay. Forlorn of thee, 
Whither shall I betake me, where subsist ? 
"While yet we live, scarce one short hour perhaps, 
Between us two let there be peace: both joining, 
As join'd in injuries, one enmity 
Against a foe by doom express assign'd us, 
That cruel serpent. On me exercise not 
Thy hatred for this misery befallen; 
On me already lost, me than thyself 
More miserable ! Both have sinn'd ; but thou 
Against God only; I against God and thee ; 
And to the place of judgment will return, 
There with my cries importune Heaven ; that all 
The sentence, from thy head remov'd, may light 
On me, sole cause to thee of all this wo ; 
Me, me only, just object of his ire! 

By the lines that follow in the Poem, Eve is said to have 
1 ended weeping,' and her supplication, to have been accom- 
panied 'with tears that ceased not flowing.' Now speech at- 
tended with tears always employs more or less tremor. Should 
the semitonic tremor however, be applied throughout the whole of 
these lines, the effect would be monotonous, and the character- 
istic concrete of speech be lost in the agitated voice of crying. 
The mingled efficacy of these two forms of intonation may be 
appropriately shown, by using the tremor, only on selected em- 
phatic words. It may be well however to remark, that the 
above lines are not entirely subservient to the manner of utter- 
ance here suggested ; for some of the syllables embracing the 
deepest contrition, have not sufficient quantity to allow the 
eminent intonation of the tremor. The word beg, and the 
accented syllable of uttermost are of this character ; for though 
they admit of the tremulous function to a slight degree, still 
their limited time does not fully satisfy the demand, for a free 
extension of the voice. The words hereave, o)i\j, forlorn, thee 
and more, through their indefinite quantity, give ample measure 
to intonation. On these and others that might here be pointed- 
out, the tremor may be effectively set, while the rest of the 
melody must have the smooth concrete of the semitone. 



30 



458 RECAPITULATING VIEW OF EMPHASIS. 



^L Recapitulating View of Emphasis. 

Ox a close consideration of the foregoing subject, it will be 
difficult to draw a definite line of separation between emphatic 
words and the rest of a current melody ; inasmuch as some of 
the fainter cases of emphasis may scarcely differ from the sim- 
ply accentual and temporal distinction of syllables. 

To what case then is the term emphasis to be applied ? Not 
to that of one syllable, which differs in any measure of time, 
or degree of stress from another. For by this rule, we may 
regard half the words of language as emphatic ; since they are 
perpetually inter-varying by slight differences in force, and 
quantity. There are however, certain impressive forms of 
utterance that attract the attention of an auditory. Marked 
decrees of stress, with abruptness, extreme length in quantity, 
wide and impressive intervals of pitch, and peculiar quality of 
voice, when set on certain words, are variously the constituents 
of emphasis. But under what mental state, these marked vocal 
sio-ns, first become emphasis 3 and at what point, in the re- 
spective gradations of stress and time, the emphatic character 
exceeds the common quantity and accent of the melody, cannot 
be assigned, and perhaps need not be known. 

Emphasis has, in the preceding parts of this section, been 
regarded as thoughtive, sentimentive, and passionative, through 
the agency of the five modes of the voice. 

Emphasis may likewise be considered in reference to other 
Purposes. These are : First ; to raise one or more words 
above the vocal level of the rest of the sentence, without regard 
to their special expression, or antithesis. Second ; to contrast 
certain words with each other, or to contradistinguish them. 
Third ; to supply an ellipsis, and thereby complete to the ear 
the grammatical construction. Fourth ; to mark the syntax, 
on occasions when it might be doubtful without the assistance 
of emphasis. 

Another view of this subject might be taken, under the divi- 
sions of the Parts of Speech. Thus, when emphasis is laid on 



RECAPITULATING VIEW OF EMPHASIS. 459 

the article, it contradistinguishes a subject as definite or indefi- 
nite, as singular or plural. On a noun, it may either point out 
the relation of attribute, or of genus, species, and individual ; 
or it may raise one substantive-thought above the rest of the 
sentence, without the immediate suggestion of any special 
antithesis. On an adjective, the relations of quality and de- 
gree. On pronouns, its distinctions are relative to gender, 
number, case, and person ; or it may indicate, as on the article, 
the definite character of a subject. On the verb, it may show 
the relationship of states of being, acting, and suffering, of 
time, and number ; or, distinguish without palpable antithesis. 
On the adverb, the contradistinction of time, place, negation, 
affirmation, and inference. On the preposition, the antithesis 
of motion, position, and cause. On conjunctions, the contrast 
of conjunctive and disjunctive relations, and of condition. On 
the interjection, emphasis serves only for unrelated distinction, 
without embracing an antithesis. 

On the whole, whatever is the meaning of any part of speech, 
emphasis may not only raise it into importance, and contradis- 
tinguish it from some other meaning, but may likewise supply 
an ellipsis, and point out the syntax. 

It has been said 3 every case of emphasis includes contrast. 
This does not seem to be true of emphatic interjections ; at least 
the antithesis is not obvious. And with regard to the cases 
included under the detail of other Parts of speech, the contrast 
in many instances is not at the moment, a subject of attention, 
even should an antithesis be embraced within the thought. Nor 
does it appear to be true of the Ellipsis, and of the Punctuative, 
and the Emphatic tie. 

It I- not within the range of my design, to illustrate all the 
cases of emphasis, set-forth in the above survey of species sug- 
gested by the philosophy of the parts of speech. I here exem- 
plify the i'o\w genera] heads, of the Purposes of emphasis. 

First. The distinction of one word above others, without the 
striking perception of antithesis, is here shown. 

But see ! the angry victor hath recall'd 
His ministers of vengeance and pursuit, 
Back to the gates of Heaven. 



460 RECAPITULATING VIEW OF EMPHASIS. 

The first phrase contains an interjective emphasis ; but I can- 
not conceive with what, see is in contrast. Surely Satan, in 
drawing the attention of the eyes of Beelzebub, did not mean 
to signify j he should not otherwise perceive the recall of the 
pursuit : and to suppose see to be in antithesis to his not having 
looked before, or to his having a contrasted interest with some 
previous purpose, is a mere refinement. The case is the same 
with most interjections, whether they are properly the simple 
tonic elements, or with greater latitude, any of the several 
parts of speech. 

Second. The marked antithesis is exemplified in the follow- 
ing lines : 

I yielded; and from that time see 
How beauty is excell'd by manly grace, 
And wisdom which alone is truly fair. 

This is the most frequent form of emphasis. 

Third. The use of strong emphasis, in an elliptical sentence, 
is remarkable in the following example, from the First book of 
Milton : 

Into what pit thou seest I 
From what hight fall'n ! so much the stronger prov'd 
He with his thunder. 

Taking these lines as a complete construction, they are un- 
grammatical, and unintelligible. To one acquainted with the 
context, it is scarcely necessary to suggest that the Poet meant 
to sayj See to what a dreadful pit we are doomed, consider 
from what an immeasurable hight we have been hurled, and 
learn thereby the degree of his superior strength. Or thus 3 
as far as the horrors and the depth of this pit are removed from 
the bliss and hight of heaven, so far has the thunder of the 
Almighty surpassed the strength of our arms. Now, this full 
meaning can be clearly brought-out from the elliptical phrase- 
ology of the Poet, only by skilful emphatic intonation. If the 
word what, in its two places, limited as it is in quantity, be given 
with an emphasis of the rapid downward-octave, forcibly aspi- 
rated, and with a loud concrete ; and if the succeeding words 



RECAPITULATING VIEW OF EMPHAf 461 

within the notes of admiration, be also intonated with downward 
interval-, but of diminished extension, it -will vocally denote 
an astonishment at the precipitation and at the doom, not fully 
conveyed by the words alone. And further, if a cadence and 
a pause be made at falV n. and if so much be strongly emphatic, 
in any form that seems preferable -; the comparison of the degree 
of strength in the thunder, to the measure of the hight, will be 
obvious ; and the whole thought and expression will come upon 
the ear, with that laconic eloquence, in which the admirers of 
the Poet will be ready to believe, they were united and con- 
densed, in his perfecting imagination. 

Fourth. When the structure of a sentence is so much 
involved, as to produce a momentary hesitation in an audience, 
about its concord or government, the syntax may be rendered 
perspicuous by means of emphasis, as in this example ; 

He stood, and call'd 
His legions, Angel forms, who lay entranc'd 
Thick as Autumnal leaves that strow the brooks 
In Vallonibrosa, where the Etrurian shades, 
High over-arch'd, imbower; or scattered sedge 
Ajhat, when with fierce winds Orion arm*d 
Hath vexed the Red-sea coast. 

If this passage stood thus, Thick as autumnal 1- i 

V'/Jhunbrosa, or scatter d sedge afloat; there could be no hesi- 
tation about the construction. But the chain of parenthetic 
specifications between leaves and or, together with the pic- 
turesque associations, and beauty of phraseology, makes as for a 
moment lose sight of that intended transition to another subject 
of illustration, which should be immediate and perspicuous : 
since the substitutive purpose of the conjunction or. is not BO 
apparent, that the phrase scattered sedge, might not, at the 
instant, be prospectively taken as a nominative in some new 
course of the description. Should then, the phrase thick as 
autumnal I mphatically raised into memorable notice.; 

and the Succeeding words, extending to the Semicolon, be hurried 
yet becomingly, and with a somewhat monotonous course of 
melody j a subsequent emphasis on scatter d sedg\ "/ ,T 



462 RECAPITULATING VIEW OF EMPHASIS. 

at once refer the ear back to the last similar emphatic distinc- 
tion of the voice, on autumnal leaves, and thus indicate, that 
the Angel forms lay likewise as thick as the scattered sedge 
afloat. 

This manner of denoting the syntax and the meaning was 
called, in the section on Grouping, the Emphatic tie ; and 
certainly in the present case, it has no other object than to join 
these dissevered thoughts ; since in a more direct and per- 
spicuous arrangement, there would be no call for the emphatic 
distinction. And the same may be understood, without an 
example, of the Punctuative reference or tie. 



Having thus enumerated the various modes of time, quality, 
force, abruptness, and intonation, by which certain words or 
syllables are brought conspicuously before the ear, the reader is 
prepared to receive the term emphasis, with a wider definition 
than is usually given of it. 

Emphasis is a generic term for the extraordinary impressive- 
ness of the thoughtive, sentimentive, and passionative meaning 
of words ; these three species of impression being respectively 
produced by the varied uses of the several modes of the voice. 

From this view it appears, that Emphasis, and what we have 
called thoughtive and expressive speech, may be considered in 
most cases, as convertible generic terms ; since emphatic words 
dhTer from such as are unemphatic, only through the use of 
those vocal signs which denote the mental states of thought 
and passion. 

The preceding analysis will enable us to display the whole 
compass of the art of reading, with some amplitude of plan and 
accuracy of delineation. Words may be considered as repre- 
senting simple thought ; an enforcing of thought ; and as 
expressive of passion. The progress of the voice in speaking 
is called melody. The course of melody under the direction of 
simple thought, is through the interval of a tone in the radical 
succession, with a concrete rise of a tone from each of the 



RECAPITULATING VIEW OF BMPHASIS. 463 

radicals. But the portions of discourse representing simple 
thought are limited; thoughts are to be enforced, and passions 
to be expressed. The tenor of the simple diatonic melody is 
therefore often interrupted, by an occurrence of longer quantity 
and of wider intervals of the scale, both in the concrete and 
discrete forms. It was shown, at the close of the sixteenth 
section, that besides the seven forms of radical pitch, called the 
phrases of melody, other radical successions of wider intervals 
were by the requisitions of speech, introduced into the Current; 
and thus, on the same principle which directed the construction 
of those phrases, we have the phrases of the third, fifth, and 
octave, both in the rising, and the falling succession. Having 
learned how these wider phrases are employed, in the important 
purpose of emphasis, we may distinguish them by an appropriate 
term. And since we called those formed on the radical suc- 
cessions of the second j the phrases of melody or the Diatonic 
Phrases, let us call those formed on the radical transitions of 
wider intervals ■> the Expressive Phrases, or Phrases of Emphasis. 

If the foregoing history of the speaking voice has been suffi- 
ciently clear, the reader may now be aide to take a discrimina- 
tive survey of that adjusted, and effective system of plain 
melody, and contrasted expression, which has been so long 
bearing its part in the ways of human thought and passion, 
without a single ear to measure, or tongue to name the niceties 
of its instrumentality, or a voice, with the conscious use of these 
available means, for the fulfilment of all its purposes : and if 
his mind is large and liberal enough to let in other thoughts 
than those of profit and fame, lie may herein possess and con- 
template at least the picture of a wise and beautiful system 
of nature, if he cannot, ambitiously offer it either for gain or 
applause. 

The exercise of an attentive ear, together with a resolute 
practice, will be necessary for the precise recognition and 
skilful employment of the various forms of vocal expression. 
Bui as all the constituents of speech, are as occasions require, 
at the command of every tongue, with whatever irregularity 
or variable meaning they may be applied ; a full understand- 



464 RECAPITULATING VIEW OE EMPHASIS. 

ing of "the principles that should govern an educated and 
elegant use of these constituents may 3 even without the power 
properly to execute them 3 enable us to overlook the exer- 
cises of others, with the decisive commendation or censure 
of an intelligent criticism ; and as in Painting, a knowledge 
alone, without an application of the rules that direct an Artist, 
may authorize a judgment on the merit of his work 3 so, in the 
art of Reading, founded upon science, the silent application of 
its rules, may, without our being practical Elocutionists, equally 
authorize us to carry the steady arm of principles, against the 
self-conflicting councils, and changeful orders of individual, or 
conventional caprice ; to hold-out against error with the strong 
defenses of a reasonable and cultivated taste ; and to associate 
the delightful but passing perceptions of the ear, with the con- 
tinued and busy pleasures of mental discrimination. 

When the reader reviews the preceding history, he is 
requested to bear in mind that its purpose has been to record the 
phenomena of speech, without a limitation of that purpose, to 
points readily cognizable in ordinary utterance, or practically 
important in oratorical instruction. As these phenomena were 
heard, so in strictest accordance, were they set-down ; for 
there is in this work, no Contribution to knowledge, which has 
not been drawn from nature, by patient observation and expe- 
riment, conducted within the limits of that little space, between 
the Tongue and the Ear. Many parts of the detail will at once 
be recognized by the competent reader ; others will be after- 
wards received into the growing familiarity of his inquiry ; 
while some of the descriptions even if admitted, will still be 
considered as refinements, beyond the reach of perception and 
of rule. As a physiologist, I have done no more than my duty, 
in this abundant record, however apparently useless some of its 
minutiae may be. Much of the accumulated wealth of science 
is not at interest ; but the borrowers may one day come. It is 
readily granted, that some distinctions in this history, may be 
at present practically disregarded. Thus the several forms of 
stress are described as palpably differing functions j and they 
are so in speech ; yet I have not ventured to insist on the im- 



RECAPITULATING VIEW OF EMPHASIS. 465 

portance of the difference in all cases. So in describing the 
intervals of the scale, it was not designed to exclude the fourth, 
sixth and seventh, or intervals even be} r ond the octave, from 
the speaking voice. Nor is it to be understood that some of 
the intervals of intonation may not on occasions, be used as 
substitutes for each other, without affecting the force or preci- 
sion of speech. I was also, far from ascribing particular 
expressions to all the possible forms of the wave. 

In thus opening the way for the change of elocution, from an 
imitative Mannerism, with its inherent defects, to a directive 
Science, or rather, an Art Founded on Nature, with all its con- 
stituent usefulness and beauty, it was necessary to set-forth 
every function of the voice ; that the materials might be there- 
by furnished towards the future establishment of a system of 
instruction, for those who have the rare aim in scholarships of 
seeking its higher accomplishments, through the abundant 
encompassing of principles, and the condensing economy of sys- 
tematic means. That the investigation of this subject has 
produced much that will be imperceptible to the first scrutinies 
of the general ear, must be inferred from the past history of 
human improvement. The mysterious subject of the Speaking 
Voice has been at all times so despairingly abandoned, as be- 
yond the reach of analytic perception, that the supposed impos- 
sibility alone, will perhaps raise a stronger opposition to the 
claims of this Demonstrative Essay, than all the Author might 
despondingly have imagined against his prospects, in under- 
taking this ' forlorn hope ' of philosophic inquiry. Many who 
in fine organization of ear, a capability of delicate analysis, and 
a power of comprehensive survey, possess the means for suc- 
cessful investigation, will too probably, shrink from the labor of 
experiment, and seek to justify infirmity of resolution, by 
defensively assuming the hopelessness of trial. 



466 DRIFT OF THE VOICE. 

SECTION XLVIL 

Of the Drift of the Voice. 

He who lias the rare gratification to hear a good reader, may 
perceive, that while his voice is adapted to the thought or 
expression on individual words 3 there is a character in its con- 
tinuous movement, through parts or the whole of his discourse ; 
identical during the prevalence of that movement, and changing 
with its variations. Every one recognizes this difference in 
manner, between a facetious description 3 and a solemn invoca- 
tion from the pulpit ; between the vehement stress of anger 3 
and the well known whining of complaint. It is to this con- 
tinuation of any one kind of vocal current or style, whatever 
may be its thought, or passion, that I apply the term Drift of 
the voice : and which I briefly noticed in the sixth and eighth 
sections. 

The character of drift is derived from the various modes of 
Quality, Force, Time, Abruptness, and Pitch. My purpose 
here, is to enumerate its forms, and to show how far they may 
be continuously employed in speech. 

This subject is not unnecessarily specified by a name, nor 
uselessly offered to the studious attention of the reader ; for if 
a particular drift is required on a portion or on the whole of 
discourse 3 any interruption of its assumed and appropriate cha- 
racter, will do equal violence to expression, and taste. Thus 
the introduction of a tone or second, into the plaintive drift of 
the chromatic melody, would no less offend against propriety of 
speech, than the errors of time in music, would shock the sensi- 
bility of an accurate ear. 

The importance of the subject of drift being admitted ; let us 
consider3 Upon what it is founded; and how many different 
forms it may employ. 

Drift is founded on the various forms of the five modes of 



DRIFT OF THE VOICE. 4*37 

speech. These forms have been described in their individual 
character, their thoughtive and expressive meaning, and their 
occasional purpose of emphasis. We here consider the manner 
of applying them, and their peculiar effect, when continued 
through a part or the whole of the current melody. 

The question 3 How many different characters drift may 
assume, is to be answered by ascertaining, which of the syllabic 
uses of quality, force, time, and pitch, will bear a continuation ; 
for some cannot be unduly repeated, without producing a disa- 
greeable monotony. In general, most of the forms of time, 
stress, and intonation, may as occasion requires, be applied as a 
current melody, without violating propriety of taste ; while 
others can be employed only on a phrase or a solitary syllable, 
and therefore are not allowable as a drift in discourse. 

Although, the character of a drift may pervade the whole 
sentence, yet the peculiar form of voice which produces it, is 
in some cases applied only to certain syllables. Thus, unac- 
cented syllables cannot bear the prolonged time, required for 
the drift of dignity ; still the dignity is spread over the whole 
sentence, by its long quantities alone. We here enumerate the 
various Btyles of drift. 

The Drift of the Second, or the Diatonic Drift. The dia- 
tonic, or as we otherwise call it the Thoughtive melody, is used 
for simple narrative and description; and having no remarkable 
expression, should be, under Nature's ordination, one of the 
most common forms of drift. The employment of expressive 
interval-, when not required, in the plain diatonic current, 
violates a leading law of fitness or decorum in speech. Let a 
gazette advertisement be read with the solemn drift of a long 
quantity, or in the plaintive style of the semitone; and all, at 
least <>f our New school of Criticism, will acknowledge the im- 
proper application of time and intonation. 

In the usual course of the diatonic melody, perhaps the 

upward concretes predominate; the downward vanish of the 

second, being occasionally introduced for variety : yet when 

required by the gravity of the subject, perhaps this downward 

ad may without monotony, constitute a drift. 



468 DRIFT OF THE VOICE. 

The Drift of the Semitone. Enough was said formerly on 
the subject of the chromatic melody ; it exemplifies the present 
head. This form is spread throughout discourse of a plaintive, 
tender, and supplicating character. It was proved in its proper 
place, that every interval is practicable on every kind of quan- 
tity ; the semitone therefore, in its drift, is heard on every syl- 
lable, however short ; and even when unaccented. 

The Drift of the Downward Vanish. It was said 3 the fall- 
ing second is sometimes used as a drift. The downward third 
and even the fifth is occasionally heard in continuation. Their 
currents express positiveness ; and an earnestness of conviction 3 
with resentment, when enforced by stress. The following 
indignant argument from the pleading of Yolumnia, in Corio- 
lanus, bears the slow concrete of the downward fifth on all its 
emphatic, with a rapid concrete of the same interval, on its 
other syllables. 

Come let us go : 
This fellow had a Volcian to his mother ; 
His wife is in Corioli, and this child 
Like him by chance. 

A continued use of the downward intervals, is as we have 
learned, a form of drift in exclamatory sentences. 

The Drift of the Wave of the Second. This is used in con- 
tinuation on long quantities, for occasions of solemn, deliberate, 
and dignified speech. I do not say 3 this wave may not be 
applied to syllables of moderately prolonged time 3 and even 
rapidly executed on those we called mutable ; but it is on long- 
drawn or indefinite quantities that its effect as a drift, becomes 
conspicuous. With an occasional use of a wider wave, longer 
quantity, and the median stress, it constitutes the Reverentive 
or sentimentive Drift. 

The Drift of the Wave of the Semitone. This is the most 
common form of the semitonic drift ; since the states of mind 
directing the chromatic melody, generally call for slow time 
and long quantity. Under this, and the preceding head, both 
the direct and inverted form of these waves are used inter- 
changeably, in their respective melodies. The rise and fall of 



DRIFT OF THE VOICE. 

the simple second, having no peculiar expression, the difference 
if any, in the effect of the respective terminating-interval of its 
direct and inverted wave, may be disregarded. Whereas, the 
strong expression of the wider simple intervals gives a remark- 
able difference in effect, to the respective termination of their 
direct and inverted waves. 

The Drift of Quantity. Attractive characters of speech are 
formed on Time. In discourse expressive of gayety, mirth, 
anger, and other similar states, the utterance is quick ; and 
this is generally combined with the simple concrete of the 
second, together with a radical or vanishing stress. The drift 
of long quantity on the wave, is employed in all solemn, plain- 
tive, and dignified speech. 

We might make a threefold division of the temporal Drift, 
into that of quick, slow, and median time. 

The Drift of Force. Loudness and Softness, or with pre- 
ferable co-relative terms, the Forte and the Piano, respectively 
heard in continuation, do impress the ear with their distinct 
peculiarities ; and the failure to fulfil the purpose of expres- 
sion on either of these points, must be included among the 
faults of speech. Who will deny; there are occasions, when 
the drift of comparative piano would be ridiculous; and others 
again, when that of forte would be disgusting bombast. 

The Drift of the Loud Concrete. This is only reading or 
speaking with more than usual force ; it may therefore consti- 
tute a drift, and may be referred to the preceding head. 

The Drift of the Median Stress. This is neccssarity asso- 
ciated with long quantity; and generally with that of the wave 
of the second and the semitone ; for their prolonged time is 
always the sign of that dignity, which for the most graceful 
display, requires the median swell. 

These aine forms of drift do, by their continuation, impress 
;i peculiar character on extended portions of discourse. 

Of the oilier expressive modes of the voice, none are allowa- 
ble in that continuation which, according to our previous 
account of drift, would properly constitute it. Yet as the 
application of some of them extends beyond the limit of em- 



470 DRIFT OF THE VOICE. 

phasis, they deserve a place next in order to the full or Tho- 
rough drifts. If the reader is disposed to give them a name, 
the j might be called Partial : thus we have 3 

The Partial Drift of the Tremor. The tremulous move- 
ment is proper only on short and occasional passages, of 
what might be called syllabic crying. But the tremulous 
expression, both in the plaintiveness of the semitone, and in 
the gayety and exultation of the second and of wider intervals, 
is too remarkable to be continued through the current of dis- 
course. For though drift is a kind of monotony, it is only 
disagreeable when improperly applied, or unduly continued. 

The Partial Drift of Aspiration. States of mind re- 
quiring aspiration are like those of the preceding head, gene- 
rally limited to temporary portions of melody. When so 
applied, the character of utterance justly entitles it to the name 
of partial drift. 

The Partial Drift of the Guttural Vibration. The scorn- 
ful feeling of this form of expression is sometimes continued 
for more than the time, and the solitary occasions of emphasis : 
and thus produces a limited drift. 

The Partial Drift of Interrogation. The rising third, 
fifth, and octave are the interrogative intervals. Their use in 
partial interrogation, exceeds so slightly the extent of their 
employment for emphasis, as scarcely to deserve the name of 
drift. In declarative, and other questions requiring the tho- 
rough intonation, the predominance of these impressive inter- 
vals, gives that peculiar character which the common ear at 
once perceives and comprehends. Still, as questions are but 
portions of discourse, and as these wider intervals are never 
used in continuation for any other purpose, this form of drift 
must be considered as partial. 

The Partial Drift of the Phrases of Melody. The Mono- 
tone and the Alternate phrase are sometimes, severally used in 
continuation, to an extent that might constitute a partial drift. 
In the twenty-ninth section, a peculiar character is respectively 
ascribed to these two phrases, when continuously employed. 

It may be a question j How far Quality of voice, on a part 



DRIFT OF THE VOICE. 471 

or the whole of discourse, might constitute a drift. The fulness 
of the orotund may give a character of dignity, at once distin- 
guishable from the meager huskiness and forceless efforts of 
uncultivated speech. 

These are the several drifts, respectively continued through- 
out discourse ; or restricted to the partial limits of a sentence 
or a clause. 

Some of the constituents of vocal expression will not bear 
repetition ; and are thus not admissible among the drifts. 

It was said 3 interrogative sentences of the Thorough kind 
might be regarded as carrying a partial drift of the third, fifth, 
or octave. With the exception of this case, these wider rising 
intervals are never correctly used in continuation. The minor 
third, though a plaintive interval in crying and song, is in no 
way allowable as a drift ; Nature, for some wise purpose, 
having excluded this sign from what she intended to be agreea- 
ble and effective speech. Its peculiarity will be shown when 
we treat of the faults of speakers. 

As a current, of these wider simple intervals is forbidden in 
melody, so their combination into the wider waves, cannot be 
extended beyond the limited place of emphasis. There is how- 
ever, a drift of this kind observable as a fault in readers : nay, 
some, in their formal efforts can command no other form of 
intonation. But the least cultivation of ear rejects the undue 
repetition of these florid constituents of speech. 

Of the stresses, none except the Median and the Loud con- 
crete are employed as a drift. The Radical would perhaps, be 
made a current style in a language of only immutable emphatic 
syllables ; and some bad speakers, particularly Pleaders at the 
Bar, who think thus to hammer-in their argument 3 do use this 
stress, as if their own had been so constructed ; it is however 
too forcible to bear continued repetition, without offending the 
ear and thereby distracting the mind. The Vanishing and 
the Compound, are too remarkable as well as too violent, to 
form a drift: and it need scarcely be said; the Emphatic 
vocule cannot be so used. As to the Thorough Stress : when- 
ever it shall be generally employed as a boorish drift, on long 



472 DRIFT OF THE VOICE. 

quantities •> the peculiar music of speech, every oratorical grace, 
and the common social and wayside decencies of the tongue, 
will long before have left it. 

There is a point worthy of some attention, in the art of read- 
ing, and nearly related to the subject of this section. I mean 
that notable change of voice, required in the transition from 
one paragraph or division of discourse to another. It may be 
supposed, this is already included in the foregoing history of 
drift. Should there be a strong or peculiar expression in the 
new paragraph, it will indeed be distinguished by its proper 
character. Yet without seeing the page, we sometimes know 
that a reader is passing to a new subject, even when there is no 
striking alteration of style : and when the plain diatonic melody 
continues, after the transition. 

The recognition in this case, is produced by several means. 
First. By the period preceding the change, being made with 
that most complete close, the prepared cadence; this indicates 
the termination of a preceding, and the transition to another 
subject. Second. By a pause, longer than that between sen- 
tences nearly related to each other. Third. By the suc- 
ceeding sentence or paragraph, beginning at a pitch above or 
below the line of the previous current. Fourth. By a striking 
effect from the phrases of melody, applied to the outset of a 
new topic. 

These vocal indications make the change of subject obvious, 
when a peculiar construction of the sentence immediately fol- 
lowing the period, defers the development of its thought or 
expression, and renders it impossible to ascertain, by the few 
first words, whether the proximate sentences are immediately 
or remotely related to each other. 

From a review of this subject > } it appears that many of the 
vocal signs may be continuously used as a drift, without pro- 
ducing monotony ; that some admit of repetition, only to a 
certain extent ; while others cannot be applied beyond the soli- 
tary place of emphasis. It appears too, by a beautiful fitness, 
and consistency, that when inadmissible as a drift, they have 
a very striking character, and are reserved for Only the occa- 



DRIFT OF THE VOICE. 473 

sional purposes of emphatic distinction. Thus the downward 

eighth, with its impressive intonation, is never used in drift. 
The case is similar with the wider forms of the wave ; and with 
the rising third, fifth, and octave, when not employed for inter- 
rogation. 

After what has been said, a little attention will show that 
several drifts may exist at once, in the same melody. Thus a 
current of the second, of short time, and of loudness, may be 
united. In like manner we may have a combination of the 
drifts of the piano or the forte, with a wave of the second, a 
long quantity, and a median stress. In short, the reader can 
ascertain which of them may be associated, by knowing the 
compatible characteristics of the several means of expression ; 
for they are united in every practicable way. 

It is not necessary to give extracts from authors, to illustrate 
the various kinds of drift. With a knowledge of the modes of 
the voice, and their forms, together with the foregoing history 
of their general and particular uses, further explanation is 
unnecessary. For I am not less solicitous to limit the pages of 
this essay, than desirous to extend the measure of its instruction. 



We have thus far spoken of the material of drift, variously 
consisting of the several modes of the voice. It may be other- 
wise regarded as directed by thought and passion, which respec- 
tively employ the forms, degrees and varieties of those modes. 
From this view, and from what we have. learned in previous 
parts of this essay, it appears 3 the modes of the voice may be 
generalized with every other voluntary and designed animal 
action ; and thus shown to be like them, directed by a preced- 
ing thought or passion. This being the entire process of the 
mind with vocal signs, it follows that for the current or drift of 
a particular vocal sign, there must be the directive current of a 
state of mind. This we have called the mental current or drift : 
and this momentarily precedes, and then carries along with it, 
the intended vocal current. Nor can there be good reading with- 
31 



474 DRIFT OP THE VOICE. 

out it ; since it directs and sustains the appropriate character of 
utterance. Thus a dignified current of unexcited thought, with 
its proper constituents under full command, and with sufficient 
practice, will always insure a just execution of the plain dia- 
tonic or thoughtive drift. A reverentive and sentimentive cur- 
rent will direct a still dispassionate, but more solemn and dig- 
nified utterance of its current sign. And in like manner, the 
mental current of the various passions will direct the proper 
vocal current for each. If then the mental current of the 
three several styles should be interrupted, there must be a 
change in the utterance : and thus we may understand 3 how a 
well-ordered state of mind 3 a full knowledge and command of 
the constituents of the voice 3 an accurate ear, and an intelli- 
gent exercise of it, are four great essentials of correct and 
elegant speech. But we learned formerly 3 there is no long 
continued current of these several states of mind, nor of their 
vocal signs ; and that the different states, with their signs often 
interchangeably displace each other. This does not however 
affect the accordance between the mind and the voice 3 the great 
essential of a true and effective elocution ; for the vocal current 
changes with the state of mind, and speech is still consistent 
with its rule. 

From a proper physical investigation, this appears to be the 
universal means for effecting the united purposes of the mind 
and the voice 3 destined under the influence of education and 
taste, to supplant the delusions of that metaphysical ignorance, 
or knowledge of nothing 3 through which every assuming Indi- 
vidual gropes among his own conceits, for the elocutionary 
Intuition that is to enable him to read with proper ' under- 
standing and feeling ;' but that with its Legion of different 
Individualities, can never frame for itself a general rule of 
vocal expression ; and that with the contentious temper of a 
metaphysical notion, can only set the Intuitive ' feeling and 
understanding ' of one individual, against that of another. 

I will endeavor to illustrate this subject of mental and vocal 
drift, by a familiar example. Let the reader imagine himself 
giving an important direction to a servant. He will be con- 



DRIFT OF THE VOICE. 475 

scious of an earnest and moderately imperative state of mind, 
the drift or current of which is not to be broken, except by ex- 
planation, or by a passing reflection. The vocal drift of this 
Direction is diatonic, with the downward third or fifth, on the 
accented syllables, according to the earnestness of the cat 
Under this vocal sign the direction will accord with the state of 
mind. And whenever we shall occupy ourselves on the stare 
and action of our minds, with as much interest as we take in its 
outward wants, and acts of folly and errors that state and action 
will be as self-perceptible as the vocal sign which denotes it. 
We will apply this principle of the according mental and vocal 
drift, to the scene of Hamlet with the Player. 

Hamlet's part has three purposes : Direction 3 and as Shaks- 
peare could not or never would write, without them j Comment, 
and Reflection. The direction is here distinguished by italics ; 
the comment by curved, and the reflection by angular brackets. 
The purpose of the inclusive linear braces will be stated pre- 
sently. 

Ham. Speak the speech, 1 pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly 
upon the tongue: (but if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as lief 
the town-crier spoke my lines.) Nor do not saw the air too much with your 
hand, thus; but use all gently: for in the very tempest, torrent, and as I may 
say, whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may 
give it smoothness. [0, it offends me to the soul, to hear a robustious periwig* 
pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split; the ears of the 
groundlings; who for the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable 
dumb-show and noise: I would have such a fellow 'whipped, for o'erduing Ter- 
magant; it out-herod's Herod:] Pray you avoid it. Be not too tame neither, 
but let your own discretion be your tutor : suit the action to the word, the ivord to 
the action ; with this special observance, that you o 'erstep not the modesty of Nature ; 
(for any thing so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, 
both at the first, and now 3 was andTsj to hold as it were, the mirror up 
to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own 'image, aud^ the very 
age and body of the f time, his 1 form and pressure.) Now this over-done, or come 
tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious griece: 
the censure of which one, must in your allowance, o'erweigh a whole theater of 
others. [0, there be players, that I have seen play, and heard others praise and 
that highly, not to speak it profanely, that neither having the accent of Chris- 
tians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted and bel- 
lowed, that I have thought some of Nature's journeymen had made them, and 
not made them well j they imitated humanity so abominably.] 



476 DRIFT OF THE VOICE. 

Player. I hope we have reformed that indifferently frith us. 

Mam. 0, reform it altogether, and let those that play your clowns, speak no 
more than is set down for them : (for there be of them, that 'will themselves 
laugh -> to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too ; though in 
the meantime, some necessary question of the play be then to be considered ; 
that's villainous ; and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it.) 
Go make you ready. 

The mental and the vocal drift for the Directive part of this 
discourse is described under the preceding familiar example. 
The Commentary and Reflection are respectively the effect of a 
different condition of the mind ; and are to be uttered with less 
of the positive intonation, and with a variety of both upward 
and downward interval 3 as the good sense and taste of the 
reader, grounded on the philosophy of speech may suggest. 

To illustrate some of our principles of stress and intonation 3 
I have merely marked with the common accentual symbol, what 
appear to be emphatic words ; but have not time to assign rea- 
sons for the choice. At six places I have included under 
linear braces, certain words to be carried through their ap- 
pointed, and still preserved pauses, on the phrase of the mono- 
tone. Now the purpose of the monotone is to unite upon the 
the ear, the act with its cause or purpose : as in the first case 3 
the tearing to rags, is to split the ears of the groundlings ; in 
the second, the cause of the whipping, is the o'erdoing of Ter- 
magant ; in the third, fourth, and fifth, the purpose of playing, 
is severally to hold the mirror up to nature j to show virtue her 
own feature, scorn her own image, and time his form and pres- 
sure. In the sixth, the idle laugh is to set-on idle spectators 
to laugh too. In this reading, it is the monotone bridging as it 
were the pauses, with its level reach of voice, that assists mate- 
rially in connecting the cause and purpose with their object. 
There is an example of the emphatic tie on the words players, 
play, praise, that, and have 3 with a moderate flight, and abate- 
ment on intermediate clauses. The design of this grouping is 
to connect by vocal means, five words separate in the construc- 
tion ; thereby to bring to the foreground of perception, the 
player, his habit of bombastic action, and his unmerited praise. 



DRIFT OF THE VOICE. 477 

If in this instance, who were substituted for that* to say nothing 
of other reasons 3 the chain of the emphatic tie would be 
stronger and brighter, from the greater stress practicable 011 its 
tonic element, and indefinite quality. The tie is also to be 
applied toj judicious, and which one; to o'erstep, and so; to 
end and hold and mirror. I would set a feeble cadence on 
groundlings ; a rising third on laugh, that follows unskilful ; 
a falling third on grieve ; and a falling fifth on well, after made 
them. 

On the subject of mental drift, I would ask the reader 3 if he 
is not conscious when he is angry, or pleased, or sorrowful, 
astonished, or inquisitive ? For these are current states of 
mental drift, which 3 if bad example has not confused or de- 
stroyed the original association, between the mind and the 
voice 3 will enable him to speak properly, under a general rule 
of Educated Nature, that Shakspeare here alludes to, but did 
not turn aside his mind to explain. 

In practically regarding the comprehensive bearing of these 
masterly hints of advice, I might show it to be an exempli- 
fication of a passing thought 3 that while the player is as 
obviously educated to bad reading, as the ' sparks fly up- 
wards 3' Nature, by the instinct of her Histrionic Favorite, 
has shown, through his unusual endowment, how 'prone' she 
is to perfection, by the indication of her laws of a true and 
expressive elocution, enfolded within these general but sug- 
gestive precepts. And must I draw attention to it ? There 
is not, alas ! throughout the whole lesson, a single general 
allusion to the important mode of Speaking-Intonation ; which 
however 3 from the Author's many metaphoric references to it, 
and from his fine musical ear 3 must have strongly affected him. 
Nor can we avoid inferring, that in Shakspeare's day, the sub- 
ject of ' the tones of the voice ' with their only nomenclature of 
high and low, was supposed then, as this ' age of progress ' holds 
it now 3 to be beyond the reach of analysis, and consequently 
without a claim to be taught. And here the Great Philosopher- 
Poet, strangely unlike himself, in ceasing to observe and reflect : 
went along, harnessed-in with the unthinking mind of the orowtL 



478 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOUGHT AND PASSION. 

Enough has been urged in this volume, against the self-suffi- 
cient 'genius' of the Actor, and the ' natural manner,' of the 
old school of elocution 3 to prevent what is here said, from 
encouraging a conceit, that with only an instinctive thought 
and passion, and a voice to utter them, we can thus sponta- 
neously speak with propriety and taste : a notion altogether as 
vain, as that with the best instincts of virtue and sagacity, the 
great mass of us can, under the present narrow and conflicting 
systems of scholastic, moral, political, and religious education, 
ever hope to be wise, or great or happy. 



SECTION XLVIIL 

Of the Vocal Signs of Thought and Passion. 

In describing the various modes and forms of the voice, I 
endeavored, under their 'two most striking distinctions, severally 
to name and exemplify the Diatonic vocal-signs, denoting the 
simple state of ideas, we called thoughts ; and the Expressive 
signs of that active state of ideas, variously and vaguely termed 
in common language, emotion, sentiment, feeling, and passion. 
This should, to the extent it proposes, satisfy the reader ; since 
it describes, in its own general way, all that to me at least, is 
audible and capable of measurement. But former systems of 
Elocution, having embraced a detailed enumeration of the pas- 
sions, without however, possessing the means, and without per- 
ceiving the necessity, of designating the special and appropriate 
voice for these various states of the mindj a like enumeration, 
with the vocal sign respectively classed with the thought, and 
the passion, may perhaps be demanded here. 

There is a kind of hypocritical compliment always paid to 
originality, with this inconsistent purpose j that mankind are 



VOCAL SIGXS OF THOUGHT AND PASSIOX. 479 

eager to receive what is new, provided it is told in the old way. 
I can imagine a reader who, after all that has been said on the 
States of mind, and their vocal signs 3 may through the habit of 
a scholastic method and a term, still look for a separate section 
on the 'Passions,' embracing the many unmeaning attempts to 
describe their expression. With an endeavor to change this 
habit, if a habit can be changed by any thing entirely different 
from itself j and to satisfy an expectation by an unexpected 
substitute for its hopes 3 I offer in the present section, a more 
systematic view and connected detail of the subject, and at the 
same time enlarge and further illustrate our former account of 
the vocal signs of thought and passion. 

I had occasion in the introduction, to notice the limited de- 
gree of our knowledge, in some of the scholastic departments 
of Elocution ; and having, from the first, resigned myself to 
the authority of observation, have endeavored as far as possible, 
to adhere to an early resolution, to avoid that reference to old 
ems and opinions, which would lead to both controversy, 
and quotation: since even within the limited pretensions of 
these departments, there is much that is unintelligible, and 
more that is erroneous. We are now about to leave, for a 
moment, the definite and luminous prototype of nature, to con- 
trast her lights, with the mysterious shades of the opinions 
of men. 

No author, as it appears, lias paid more attention to the sub- 
ject of Inflection or the rise and fall of the voice, particularly 
in its practical application, than Mr. Walker. Indefinite as he 
is on this point, he exceeds in specified rule, all that is said by 
Aristotle, Cicero, Dionysius, Quinctilian, and the Older Mu- 
sicians. It is true, Mr. Walker owes his superficial analysis 
to them ; but in his knowledge of the purpose and use of Intlec- 
tion ; as we must infer from their records j he fairly i treads 
upon that Greek and Unman glory,' which national vanity first 
proclaimed, and the subsequent credulity of European scholar- 
ship was simple enougb to magnify and repeat. 

Let us then hear what Mr. Walker says of the vocal repre- 
sentation of the passions. 



480 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOUGHT AND PASSION. 

' It now remains,' observes this author,* i to say something of 
the passions and emotions of the speaker. These are entirety 
independent on the modulation of the voice, though often con- 
founded with it ; for modulation relates only to speaking loudly 
or softly, in a high or in a low key, while the tones of the 
passions or emotions mean only that quality of sound that 
indicates the feelings of the speaker without reference to the 
pitch, or loudness of the voice.' 

Again in the hundred and sixty-sixth page. 

* The truth is, the expression of passion or emotion consists 
in giving a distinct and specific quality to the sounds we use, 
rather than in increasing or diminishing their quantity, or in 
giving this quantity any local direction, upwards or downwards.' 

And again in another work.f 

6 As to the tones of the passions which are so many and so 
various, these in the opinion of one of the best judges in the 
kingdom, are qualities of sound occasioned by certain vibrations 
of the organs of speech, independent on high, low, loud, soft, 
quick, slow, forcible or feeble.'X 

It often happens with modern aspirants after some of the sci- 
ences in the schools -> as it did with those who anciently under- 
went the mummery of admission to the mysteries of Eleusisj 
to hear themselves addressed in an incomprehensible language. 
What instruction, for instance, can be gathered from this defi- 
nition, if indeed it deserves the name ? ' The tones of the 
passions mean only that quality of sound that indicates the 
feelings.' Here instead of an explanatory description of a 
thing, we are presented with a truism in a periphrase. For, as 
the terms ' passions ' and ' feelings ' must here be synonymous, 
as well as those of 'tone' and 6 quality of sound,' the varied 
proposition may stand thus : 4 the tones of the (or the tones 

* Elements of Elocution, page 308, Am. ed. 

-J- Observations on Greek and Latin quantity, appended to Walker's Key to 
the pronunciation of ancient proper names. 

J Let us here consider, that Mr. Walker's opinions have been, for the greater 
part of a century, and still are, the source from which nearly all the school- 
books on elocution have been drawn, in this country, and throughout the British 
Dominions. 



VOCAL SIGNS OF THOUGHT AND PASSION. 481 

which indicate the) passions, mean only the tones which indicate 
the passions :' or with less waste, thus ; ' the tones of the pas- 
sions are the tones of the passions.' 

The second extract however, seems to contain a real distinc- 
tion between the subject and the predicate : since by ' quality ' 
the author may mean that mode of the voice, specified in this 
essay, by the terms 3 full, harsh, slender, natural, falsette, 
whisper and orotund ; for these are the only existing qualities 
of sound, besides those which Mr. Walker has excluded from 
his definition. But if pitch, which is here meant by ' local 
direction,' be denied a place among the signs of passion 3 what 
shall we say of the comprehensive class, including the pitch of 
the semitone, the rising intervals of interrogation, and the down- 
ward vanish that conspicuously marks the various degrees of 
surprise ? And in short, what is to be said of the effect of the 
different measures of time, and the various degrees of stress, if 
speaking 'loudly or softly,' and 'increasing or diminishing the 
quantity ' of sound have no agency in the vocal representation 
of passion ? 

The real motive of Mr. Walker, in excluding intonation, 
stress, and time, from among the signs of the passions, and 
in his attempts to assign the expression of speech to a certain 
unexplained cause called 'quality,' is clearly manifested in the 
last quotation ; for here, this opinion, on the expressive power 
of Jiis term quality, since it is no more than a word, is ascribed 
to ' one of the best judges in the kingdom.' After all then, 
this confused notion concerning the passions was adopted upon 
authority, by Mr. Walker ; and this confession of his faith in 
others, certainly did not accord with his repeated claims to 
originality of observation. An original observer holding him- 
self responsible for his report, cross-questions the testimony of 
his senses ; while the borrower of opinions is always less scru- 
pulous j since he himself never designs to stand security against 
the folly or mischief of his promulgations. 

What has been recorded in our previous history, may induce 
the reader to smile at the above quotations ; and enable him to 
perceive, that the vocal signs of the passions are no more than 



482 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOUGHT AND PASSION. 

the every-day audible sounds of the manifest Modes, Forms, 
and degrees of Quality, Time, Force, Abruptness, and Pitch ; 
and that the greater part of these signs are derived from those 
very causes, which are declared by Mr. Walker, to have no 
agency in impassioned utterance. With regard to the ' specific 
quality ' here assumed as the vocal material of expression, it is 
not allowable to suppose, the mode of voice called in this essay, 
Quality or Kind, is meant by Mr. Walker's term ; since his 
account of quality is complicated with an attempt to derive its 
proximate cause, from some unintelligible system of ' vibrations.' 

Let the whole pass as an instance of that unnatural paternity 
in instruction, which when asked for bread, dispenses nothing 
but a stone. And at the same time let it apologize for any 
apparently unbecoming expressions that may have slipped from 
my pen, when unavoidably brought into contact with those 
grosser errors of indolence or authority, which j viewed along 
with the means, purposes, and pretensions of Magisterial as 
distinct from Natural Science j seem to be almost unpardonable. 

In reconsidering the subject of Expression, under another 
view, it is not my intention to go into a dissertation on the 
passions, or to contend with authors about the scheme of their 
arrangement. I shall describe them with reference only to the 
purpose of the present section, without designing to regard their 
other relationships. 

In the sixth section, we described three different condi- 
tions of the States of Mind, and three forms of the vocal signs, 
that severally represent them : but here for a moment, classing 
the inter-thoughtive or sentimentive with the passionative, we 
regard the states of mind, under two divisions. To the division 
of Simple Thought, the interval of the second is allotted. To 
that of Passion, the numerous forms and varieties of the other 
intervals, and the impressive forms of quality, time, abruptness, 
and force. These two divisions of the voice, the thoughtive, 
and the passionative, include the Natural signs, which in- 
stinctively denote their respective states of mind. 

But other means for denoting thought and passion being still 
required, Artificial signs were devised. These artificial signs, 



VOCAL SIGXS OF THOUGHT AND PASSIOlf. 488 

■re words, conventionally formed to describe these same states 
of mind. 

To illustrate the purpose and use of both these classes of 
signs, and to show their relation to each other, I will here 
briefly again present, under its two divisions, our former view 
of the states of mind, on which we founded the distinction of 
their vocal signs. 

The human mind is the place of representation of all the 
existences, actions, and relationships of nature, within the scope 
of the senses. These representatives are called ideas. These 
ideas are either the passive pictures of things; or they exist 
with an activity, capable of so affecting the physical organs, as 
to impel us to seek the object that produces them, or to avoid 
it. This active or vivid class of ideas comprehends the passions. 
The >tates of mind here described, exist then in different forms 
and degrees, from the simple unexcited idea, to the highest 
energy of passion ; and the common but indefinite terms j 
thought, sentiment, emotion, feeling, and passion are the vague 
verbal-signs of these degrees and forms. Nor does there appear 
to he, where they interjoin, any line of classification, for dis- 
tinctly separating the mental conditions of thought and of 
passion ; since simple thoughts without changing their meaning, 
do from Interest or other excitement often assume the degree 
and color of a passion. 

This being one of the many views to be taken of ideas, we 
pass to the consideration of the effects produced on the visible 
and vocal parts of the human frame, by those thoughts and 
passions. These effects have been called their signs, or physi- 
cal expression. They are of many forms and places ; and are 
severally marked by sound, feature, change of color, and varia- 
tion of muscular action: but we are at present concerned only 
with vocal sound. 

The voice, as just stated, has then two distinct classes of 
Bgns: the Natural, or vocal, if we may so distinguish it ; and 
the Artificial or Verbal. 

The Natural consist severally of quality, time, force, abrupt- 
QMS, and pitch, applied indeed to words, but sometimes signi- 



484 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOUGHT AND PASSION. 

ficant of the mind without them. They are the voice of infancy, 
before the period of articulation ; are common to man and the 
sub-animals ; and are used through life, both alone, and com- 
bined with the Artificial or verbal, to denote the animal pas- 
sions of surprise, love, anger, fear, desire, search or inquiry, 
sorrow, affection, joy, pain, command, and other states of mind 
that may be resolved into these. 

The Artificial signs or words are acquired after infancy. 
They may denote any and every state of mind, when joined 
with the Natural, or may describe one and all without them. 
They are produced by the articulative mechanism ; and as 
descriptive signs, are more numerous than the natural. 

These are the two classes of oral signs, severally and jointly 
representing the different states of mind, in thought and pas- 
sion. Some of these states are animal or instinctive, and have 
the natural signs. Others are the result of human intelligence, 
and the social relations, and have no such signs, as those 
ordained by nature in her own original mental and vocal crea- 
tions. Thus, there are natural or vocal signs for pain, surprise, 
and anger ; but none of any definite character for hope, con- 
tentment, and gratitude. 

Here then are two essentially different means for represent- 
ing the various states of mind ; since some of these thoughts, 
emotions, passions, call them by what indefinite term we will, 
are denoted by certain forms of stress, time, quality, and pitch 3 
nature's instinctive signs, in the voice j joined to a verbal or 
conventional language ; while others can be described only by 
a verbal or conventional language, which may not carry the 
natural or vocal-signs. Thus we signify command by the down- 
ward fifth, or octave ; and complaint by the semitone ; and the 
meaning of these intervals is the same in all nations, under any 
conventional sign. But it is not in our power, to express the 
states of gratitude, and irresolution, except we describe these 
states of mind, by appointed and arbitrary words, that may 
vary in every different language. 

Let us then, by terms, clearly distinguish these two classes 
of signs. Thus, when we denote thought and passion by Qual- 



VOCAL SIGNS OF THOUGHT AND PASSION. 485 

ity, Time, Force, or Intonation, either with or without conven- 
tional words, we will call it, the Instinctive, or Natural, or 
Vocal sign. When we describe or indicate thought, and passion 
by a sentence, a phrase, or a word, without the use of vocal 
signs, co-expressive with the words 3 we will call it, the Con- 
ventional, or Artificial, or Verbal sign. 

Although it thus appears that we have not an instinctive or 
vocal sign for every state of mind ; yet every state of mind 
may be expressed by a conventional sign ; for one can ver- 
bally, and in the plain diatonic melody, inform another, that 
he is astonished, and thus convey a knowledge of his being 
under that state of mindj as certainly as he can by the most 
striking use of the downward octave, which is its natural sign. 
When astonishment is to be represented on a word or phrase, 
which does not describe it, it is necessary to employ its 
instinctive or natural sign. We have seen in the seventeenth 
section, that a question may be asked by a grammatical con- 
struction alone, without the aid of intonation. But further, an 
interrogatory can be distinctly conveyed, merely by the verbal 
statement, that a question is asked : and this is often done 
in written discourse, without affixing the ■ note ' of interro- 
gation. 

In consequence of there being Instinctive signs in the voice, to 
denote passion, and Artificial signs in language, to describe itj 
one instinctive sign can with the assistance of the artificial, repre- 
sent two or more passions or their degrees ; for though, of two 
phrases with the same vocal, but with a different verbal sign; the 
vocal sign being the same, cannot in itself severally signify dif- 
ferent states of mind ; yet a specification, by the verbal terms, 
describes the difference, under the identical vocal form. Suppose, 
for instance, one should use the imperative phrase, be gone, with 
a forcible downward vanish of the octave; and again, with the 
same intonation, should say, well done ; the difference between 
the two states of mind, in command, and in exclamatory appro- 
bation, would be distinctly represented respectively by the im- 
perative verb, and by the interjection, notwithstanding their 
identical intonation. Thus too, the same semitone is used for 



486 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOUGHT AND PASSION. 

the expression of pain, discontent, pity, grief, and contrition ; 
and yet in all these different cases, the states of mind are 
marked by the conventional language on which the semitone is 
employed. 

We are now prepared to take a general view of the subject 
before us ; which, to borrow a technicality from another art, 
may be called the Semiotica of Elocution ; a term which as yet 
incomprehensible, in its Intonative meaning at leasts is, by 
embracing the full and just adaptation of the voice to the mind, 
destined hereafter to be understood and received as comprising 
the whole esthetic and practical philosophy of speech. 

The Semiotic ways and means of Elocution, or the vocal 
signs of Thought and Passion, are 3 First. Instinctive, or 
Natural ; consisting of the forms, degrees, and varieties of the 
five modes of the voice. And Second. Artificial, or verbal ; 
having the descriptive power of conventional language. 

In the uses of discourse 3 and we here return to our three- 
fold division 3 natural signs, under one condition of the modes 
of the voice form the thoughtive, narrative, or diatonic Drift. 
Under another of moderate expression, the reverentive or 
sentimentive. And under the use of all the expressive powers 
of quality, time, force, abruptness and pitch, the vivid charac- 
ter of the passionative. 

The Artificial have, in themselves, neither the character nor 
the voice of the natural ; but can by words, universally describe 
their effects, and thus may represent thought and passion, 
equally with the natural signs : while a union of the natural 
and the artificial, gives the most exact and impressive vocal 
representation of the logical and of the passionate purposes of 
the mind.* 

* The Verbal and the Vocal means for denoting the states of mind, are each 
so essential to the purposes of speech, that it is difficult to determine which is 
most significant of thought and passion. The power of giving a different pas- 
sionative meaning to the same word, by a varied quality, stress, time, or into- 
nation, would imply the vocal or instinctive signs, to be more effective than the * 
verbal or conventional. But other facts lead us to conclude 3 we are as much 
in,deoted to the descriptive agency of words, as to any expressive efficacy of the 
voice. 



VOCAL SIGNS OF THOUGHT AND PASSION. 487 

We have learned that the means of expression are always 
applied in combination. There must be at least two conjoined, 

It will hereafter be shown in the analysis of Song, that every function which 
we have ascribed to speech, is employed in its Elaborate style of execution ; 
and though it is true j the semitone has a plaintive character, even if sung 
without words; still the ri&ing and falling concretes of the third, fifth, and 
octave, when not set to words which describe the expression of these interval.-, 
are constantly heard in what are called songs of Agility, without denoting 
interrogation, positiveness, or surprise. In like manner, the various furms of 
stress which are properly expressive in syllabic utterance, seem to be almost 
without meaning in the inarticulate movements of song. 

A still more striking view of the power of conventional language, as the means 
of expression, when contrasted with the power of instinctive intonation, is dis- 
played in the voice of sub-animals, particularly that of birds. 

When a familiarity with our history will have given a facility in discrimina- 
tion, it will be perceived that birds employ all the vocal signs of speech, without 
suggesting surprise, interrogation, positiveness, and scorn, together with the 
repose of the cadence; which would be eminently conveyed by those signs, 
joined with words that describe these several mental states. The expression of 
plaintiveness by the semitone, in the voice of the dove, and of pleasure by the 
tremor on other intervals, in the snuffing of the horse for his food, is indeed 
made without a verbal sign, and yet is identical with the display of similar 
states by the human voice. But it must be recollected that laughter and cry- 
ing, the analogies to these sub-animal expressions, are in speech, generally inar- 
ticulate, and are thus to be considered as merely animal signs, in the human 
voice. 

It is then the union of an arbitrary Verbal designation of a state of mind with 
its natural or Vocal sign, that constitutes the true and essential means of 
expression in speech. 

1 must here beg the reader to excuse a digression from our subject. In the 
course of this essay many analogies might have been shown between the human 
voice, aud that of the sub animal: but I designed to avoid mingling these two 
comparative subjects of uatural history. 

Speech is but a select aggregate of the vocal and artieulative functions, dis- 
persedlv exercised, by all animals : for there is scarcely a form of quality, time, 
intonation, force, .abruptness, and even of articulation, wliieh is not common in 
severalty, to many of the sub species, and to man. Man employs more of these 
si^ns than any one species, but perhaps leas than all; the principal difference 
consisting in his power over the structure and chain of the literal and syllabic 
function. 

I |.on t lie ground of this identity, and with the assistance > i an exact measure- 
ment, ami definite nomenclature of the human voice, afforded b} (bid e»ay | 
What is there to prevent the voices of animal* being taken </« <<>k oj tht designation* 
of species, in the systematic arrangement of Zooloyy ? 



488 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOUGHT AND PASSION. 

and there may be more. Thus guttural grating, aspiration, 
and the different forms of stress are necessarily applied to some 

Naturalists have sometimes attempted this in a rude way, by a reference to 
alphabetic sounds, and to the modes of time and stress in words and phrases. 
"When boys without the least attention to the difference of vocal Quality in the 
cases, find a resemblance in the shrill summer-whistle of the American par- 
tridge, to the words ' bo-bob-white ;' and think they pronounce the short re- 
peated phrase of the ' whip-poor-will ;' in its name, which the native Indian with 
closer imitation, calls muc-ha-wis ; the similarity lies between the impression of 
the accentual stress and the time of utterance in the two cases ; for the whistle 
and the phrase, as well as many mechanical noises, resemble, at the whim of 
the listener, any words with an equal number of syllable-like impulses, and the 
same condition of quantity and accent. 

Birds in the endowment of voice, have First ; a single Chirp, including seve- 
rally, every variation of quality, time, and force, with every form of pitch, 
from the feeblest effort in the simple interval, to movements of wider concretes 
and waves, in the cry, the shriek and scream ; and in some cases, even the note 
of song. Second ; A phrase, of two, three, or four constituents, severally of 
every quality, time, force, and every form of intonation. Third ; A Medley, 
composed of a heterogeneous succession of chirps, and phrases. Fourth ; A 
Melody, such as it is, of rapid concretes, of the singer's ' pure tone 3' in 'liquid,' 
smooth, and brilliant quality 3 of varied force, and intonation; but without bar, 
cadence, or key. This melody is distinguished by its continuous course of 
greater or less duration, without the disjointed interruptions that occur in the 
medley. Some birds j I omit their systematic names 3 have only the chirp ; as 
our sparrow, king-bird, swallow, the woodpecker tribe, the blue-jay, and various 
hawks. Others, as our yellow-bird, robin, red-bird, partridge, blue-bird and 
whipperwill, have the chirp and phrase. Others again, the chirp and melody, 
as our thrush, cat-bird, wren, and perhaps the oriole, meadow-lark, and black- 
bird. The mocking-bird, and the canary, have the chirp, and the medley, as a 
remarkable case: while a few others properly called singing birds, but of 
which I cannot speak from observation 3 may have the chirp, the phrase and 
the melody, under the most agreeable character. 

The exact and broad observer 3 for the peering Naturalists do not yet seem to 
know, what comparative phonology means, nor that the subject of the voice is 
part of natural history 3 will kindly excuse the errors of this description; since 
it is offered only as a faint and broken light, obscurely showing one of the outer 
doors of this interesting department of knowledge : and now held-out, with the 
assistance of our present analysis, from memory of rural and pastime observa- 
tion made while at school on the borders of the Susquehanna before my four- 
teenth year. And would I could forget how often in thoughtless pleasure, I 
may have given disquietude or pang to those innocent lives, that afforded the 
means of my present contented occupation ; and that still bring up so many 
juvenile associations of time and place, in thus recording the forms of their into- 
nation. 



VOCAL SIGNS OF THOUGHT AND PAS8I0H. 

interval of pitch. The interval of pitch must he united with 

time, whether the quantity is long or short. The natural sum 

After what is here said, on the general character of the voices of Birds, 
and with the light of classification and description contained in this essay, a 
cultivated ear would not have much difficulty in ascertaining, whether the chirp 
of a bird is in the concrete or the radical pitch of a semitone, second, or other 
interval; of how many constituents the phrase consists; what, in the medley, 
are the places of pitch ; with the kind and order of its phrases ; and what, the 
concrete and discrete in the melody. As far as observation extends, we know ; 
the voice of birds is unchangeable in the species ; it is therefore as well entitled to 
nomenclature, provided it can be assigned definitely, as the feathers, beak, and 
claws. If language had never furnished discriminative names for color and 
form, even these characteristics, like those of the voice, would never have been 
known in the descriptions of ornithology : or rather, ornithology as a classifica- 
tion, would be unknown. 

Without extending our observation to the whole range of animals, within 
which we might severally find all the varieties of the human voice, even to the 
protracted note of song, in the frogj I here give an outline of the vocal func- 
tions of the Mocking-bird, as illustrative of the powers which generally belong 
to its class. 

The Mocking-bird has every variety and degree in Quality, from the delicate 
chirp of the sparrow, and harsh scream of the jay, to the guttural bass of the 
clucking of the hen. lie uses every variation of Time, from a mere point of 
sound, to the quantity of our most passionate interjections. He has command over 
all the intervals of the scale, both ascending and descending, in the discrete as 
well as the coucrete pitch. His simple concrete exhibits the proper structure 
of the radical and vanish. He executes the wave in its equal and unequal, its 
direct and inverted forms; yet I cannot say, he uses its double movement. He 
exhibits all the forms of Stress on the concrete : the compound constitutes his 
shake. It is the diatonic shake, and consists, on its different occasions, of from 
five or six to ten or twelve iterations. It is not so rapid as the human shake, 
and consequently wants its liquidity ; nor does it ever end in a turn, but passes 
carelessly to any effort that follows. This shake is sometimes made on a wider 
interval than the second : but it is a sluggish movement, and consists of only 
two or three repetitions, as we sometimes hear it in singers, of great execution. 
And it is worthy of remark, that in this slowness the compound stress is plainly 
distinguishable. He uses the tremor, both on a continuous line, and with its 
rising and falling tittelar skips. All this comprehensive exercise of the throat, 
has individually the form of either chirp or phrase. The continued rounds of 
voice, which at night, sometimes last for hours, form therefore a med!' 
chirps and phrases, without successive similarity in the relation of time, qual- 
ity, force or pitch ; and altogether without rythmus, cadencial close, or key. 
In this medley the phrases exceed the chirps in number ; but I cannot lay, how 
many of each are used. Perhaps twenty kinds would include them all : and 

32 



490 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOUGHT AND PASSION. 

may be heard joined to the words of the artificial ; and of the 
natural, there must be two simultaneous, and there may be 

supposing these to be differenced by time and quality, there would be more. 
Each set of the chirps and phrases, as it returns through the medley, may vary 
in the number of its repetitions. Thus a chirp may be single, or may be 
repeated two or three times, or oftener. A phrase of two constituents may in 
the returns of the medley have three, four, or more repetitions of these two ; or 
as sometimes happens in the shake, ten or twelve : and it is the same with a 
phrase of the tremor. The phrase of three or four constituents, which last is 
rarely heard, has fewer repetitions than the more simple ones ; while the chirp 
is most frequently heard only once. The whole medley then, has no regularity 
in the return of its several voices, nor in the number of their repetitions. 

It was first said by somebody^ perhaps himself a parrot in human character j 
that while this bird mocks all others, he has no ' notes' of his own : and then 
Everybody, mocking somebody's say, Nobody thought of doubting it. Yet upon 
this very idea of exclusive property in the voice, he has more 'Notes' of his 
own than any other bird : and having within his compass, almost the whole 
constituency of song, whether human, or Volncralj, for Ornithology wants this 
adjective ^ it would not be surprising, if other birds should recognize some of 
their supposed property, in his. When frequenting farms, with pidgeons, hens, 
turkeys, and guinea-fowls, all around him ; and when in the fields of Virginia, 
all day pierced by the whistle of the partridge 3 with his own < notes' almost 
stifled at night, by the panting voices of a whole settlement of whipperwills, 
he has never, within my knowledge, been heard to mock their phrases ; though 
master perhaps of all the simple sounds that severally compose them. And 
certainly no Indian Farrinelli ever gave him an example of the shake. Mimic 
then, as with his own natural voice, they would make him, it would have been 
a kindly restraint on those who have slandered him, to have had a natural ear 
of their own to prevent it. 

We thus learn, that the vocal constituents of the song of the Mocking-bird, 
like the vocal signs in speech, are few in number ; but in each case, our igno- 
rance of the individual signs, leaving us to regard only their numerous combina- 
tions, has created a belief that they are infinite. Thus a certain quality, or 
interval may be heard under a variation in time ; and the same concrete, or 
tremor, or shake may differ in quality, and in its places of pitch. 

The rule for the signs of passion, in speech, is strictly applicable to the voices 
of sub-animals, as regards those sounds which are purely vocal and separate 
from words. Thus the repeated chirp, which seems to be the idle and unmean- 
ing diatonic voice of birds, is generally a short quantity, on a single rising or 
falling concrete second, or third, and rarely, as far as I have observed, on the 
wider intervals. A prolongation of the chirp is usually expressive of their 
passions and appetites. Pain, love, and fear, are always exhibited in the move- 
ment of the semitone. But I am agreeably led on towards an arrangement, 
when I designed only to suggest the scheme to others. The limited and perhaps 
imperfect manner in which, from a neglect of full observation, I have described 



VOCAL SIGNS OF THOUGHT AXD PASSION. 491 

more. Not one form of expression can exist separately : and 
■we may have under a single syllabic impulse, a long quantity, 
a wide interval, aspiration, and stress, all simultaneous in effect- 
ing a particular purpose in speech. 

The following is a summary of the instinctive or vocal signs, 
denoting the states of mind, we have called reverentive or 
sentimentive, and passionative. 

In the thirty-fourth section, it was proposed to employ the 
terms Piano, and Forte, for the degrees of force, respectively 
above and below the distinct and becoming audibility of that 
sense-bred conversation, which equally avoids an overbearing 
loudness on one side, and a fashionable mincing, or a faint- 
mouthed and perplexing affectation, on the other. And first ; 

The Piano of the Voice. Some states of mind, together 
with certain conditions of the body that may be associated with 
them, are properly expressed by a piano, or moderated voice, 
in current discourse. These states, and conditions are those of 
humility, modesty, shame, doubt, irresolution, apathy, caution, 
repose, fatigue, and prostration from disease. The} 7 generally 
employ the simple diatonic melody : some however, with a 
piano or a feeble utterance, use the semitone, and the wave of 
the second. Of this kind are pity, grief, and awe. 

this single instance of volucral intonation, may however show, that as there is 
now a system and nomenclature for the voices both of the garrulous, and mischie- 
vous Demagogue of American Assemblies, and of this harmless Polyglot of the 
American grove, there would be no great difficulty in classifying with precision, 
more manageable individualities of sound, in the other departments of vocal 
Zoology. 

This subject is at least curious, if not useful ; yet it lies out of my way. 
There are in all sciences large volumes of compilation : let us have from some 
Naturalist with a good ear, a little book of original truth, on the inquiry here 
proposed. Let it be done by pure and personal observation. Let the author 
not lose his strong breath of usefulness ;md fame, by a puerile precipitancy 
after reputation ; nor hasten with his unripeness, in the market-like fear of 
being forestalled. Patient, enthusiastic, and unostentatious study j independent 
ohservation and thought ; and :i disinterested love of truth ; with their sure and 
great results in science, are always, and why so, solitary in an age, and oannot 
therefore be forestalled; while on this point, as in promises under another 
name, it will be with those who Beeh the unaltered, and unalterable truth- of 
nature, that the last in its proper season, .-ball be First. 



492 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOUGHT AND PASSION. 

The Forte of the Voice. This sign, as the reverse of the last, 
is appropriate to states of mind associated with muscular energy, 
and vivid degrees of passion. Some of these states are signified 
by a high degree of force ; for in addition to those which employ 
it as a leading characteristic, such as rage, wrath, fear, and 
horror, some that depend for their expression, chiefly on into- 
nation or accentual stress, do at the same time assume the 
character of forte or loudness. Of this class are astonishment, 
exultation, and laughter. 

Quickness of Voice. Inasmuch as quickness of the current 
melody generally goes with Short Quantity, in individual sylla- 
bles, we do not make separate heads for these two subjects. 
Some states of mind, under this division, are likewise expressed 
by other signs, particularly by Loudness ; as anger, rage, mirth, 
raillery and impatience. Many states having their principal 
signs in forms of intonation and stress, are associated also with 
quickness of voice. 

Slowness of Voice. Speakers who have no command over 
quantity, affect to be deliberate, by momentary rest between 
their words. But slow time in discourse, if not made by ex- 
tended syllabic quantity, would from its frequent pauses, be 
monotonous and formal. Slow time and long quantity are an 
essential cause of dignified utterance, and are effected on the 
wave ; since the continuous return of an interval into itself, is 
one of the means for producing an extension of time, without 
destroying the equable concrete of speech. Slowness of time, 
with its constituent long quantity, is properly employed for many 
states of mind ; as sorrow, grief, respect, veneration, dignity, 
apathy, contrition, and all others embracing refinement, and 
moderation. 

Quality of Voice. It is unnecessary to repeat here all the 
terms denoting the forms of quality. The following are some 
of them, with their respective states of mind annexed. Harsh- 
ness is affected by anger and imperative authority : gentleness 
by grief, modesty and commiseration : the whisper, which is a 
kind or quality of voice, by secrecy. The falsette is heard in 
the whine of peevishness, in the high tremulous pitch of mirth, 



VOCAL SIGNS OF THOUGHT AXD PASSION. 493 

and in the piercing scream of terror. The full body of the 
orotund, in a cultivated speaker, gives satisfactory expr 
to solemnity and grandeur. 

The Rising and the Falling Semitone. The simple rise of 
the semitone is rather an unfrequent form of expression ; since 
most plaintive intonations, and there are many of this class, 
require a long quantity, and are therefore properly represented 
by the wave of this interval. Still complaint, grief, and other 
states of like import, may sometimes be made with an earnest- 
Mflg, requiring a short syllabic time. In this case the voice 
cannot bear the delay of the wave, and effects all the purposes 
of semitonic intonation, by the simple rise or fall through the 
concrete, with the addition when necessary, of the radical or 
vanishing stress. 

The Rising and the Falling Second or Tone. Those states 
of mind, called thoughts, in contradistinction to passions; those 
narratives or descriptions, which denote things as they are 
in themselves, without reference to our relation to them, on the 
point of pleasure or pain, desire or aversion, interest or injury, 
are all represented by the plain unobtrusive interval of the 
second, either in its upward or downward course. The various 
uses of the voice, properly called Expression, have something 
so striking in their character, that the attentive observer may 
easily recognize them. "When, therefore, there is an absence 
of this expression, he may conclude -; the current of speech is 
in the diatonic melody. 

The Rising Third, Fifth and Octave. These intervals 
severally express different degrees of the same state of mind : 
while the differences between the states themselves arc desig- 
nated by the verbal signs that describe them. In their varying 
extent, they represent interrogation, as moderate, dignified, or 
earnest. Combined with other vocal means they add to the 
question, particularly on the octave, the character of quaint- 
I 86, sneer, and derision. With aspiration they have the effect 
of the downward intervals, and indicate serious Bnrpriseand its 
congenial Btates. They express a conditional sense, on emphatic 
Guttural vibration adds scorn to a question on the 



4:94: YOCAL SIGNS OF THOUGHT AND PASSION. 

Wider of these intervals ; and joins to their character in empha- 
sis 3 haughtiness, disdain, reproach, indignation, and contempt. 
As the deliberate execution of these intervals requires long 
quantity, they have not the extended time, and consequently, 
not the solemn and dignified character, they assume vrhen 
doubled into the wave. 

The Downward Third, Fifth and Octave. These severally 
express, both different degrees of the same state of mind, and 
states of mind different among themselves. They are emphati- 
cally the signs of surprise, astonishment, wonder, and amaze- 
ment ; and although these states are not identical, still, each 
in its peculiarity, is represented upon these falling inter- 
vals : the specific difference being marked, either by their varied 
extent, or by the conventional phrase to which they are ap- 
plied. These intervals also denote a positiveness, and a settled 
conviction on the part of the speaker ; hence they are given to 
phrases of authority, command, confidence, and satisfaction. 
A downward movement, we have learned, also produces the 
terminative repose of a cadence ; and consequently when not 
joined with force, is well suited to express a state of quietude ; 
such as resignation, despair, and the condition of mind which 
attends fatigue. And yet any difference, under all these cases, 
of a similar intonation, is distinguished by their respective con- 
ventional language. 

The Wave of the Semitone. The expression of the simple 
rise and the fall of the semitone was noticed above ; but its 
return or contrary flexure into the wave, is the most common 
form of this expressive interval. Indeed, there is scarcely a 
vocal sign which represents so many and such various states of 
mind ; the specific distinction of the cases, being made by the 
descriptive phrase. The wave of the semitone differs from the 
simple interval, in the dignity derived from its extended quan- 
tity, and in its enhanced expression, from a repetition of the 
interval by its contrary flexure. Sorrow, grief, vexation, 
chagrin, repining, contrition, impatience, peevishness, compas- 
sion, commiseration, condolence, pity, love, fondness, supplica- 
tion, fatigue, and pain, with whatever varieties may exist among 



VOCAL SIGXS OF THOUGHT AND PASSION. 

them, are still, through the difference of the conventional sign. 
all expressed by the wave of the semitone. 

The Wave of the Second. The interval of the second, either 
in a rising or falling direction, being the voice of plain unim- 
passioned thought, is purely a diatonic sign, and not a means 
of expression. Still as the downward return of this interval 
into the form of the wave, produces a long quantity, it neces- 
sarily adds to the second, the peculiar effect of that quantity-: 
and when duly extended, gives to thoughtive discourse its full 
character of dignity, and grandeur ; to the exclusion of the 
intrusive, and therefore inappropriate use of force, quality, 
abruptness, and the wider intervals of intonation. 

The Waves of the Third, Fifth, and Octave. The forms of 
the wave are so various, that it would far exceed the design of 
this work to enumerate themj and to assort them with the 
passions. The principles that govern their expression, were 
unfolded, in the twenty-fifth, and six following sections. The 
character of the constituent intervals of these waves, has a 
large influence in determining their respective expressions. 
The upward vanish of the last constituent of the inverted form 
has the effect of interrogation ; and the downward course of the 
last constituent of the direct, that of surprise. If then these 
two contrary forms of the wave have, respectively, through 
their final constituent, the same character as the separate ami 
simple rise and fall of the interval, there might seem to be no 
necessity for their use. Yet supposing the effects to be identi- 
cal, which however, may not always be the case j the wave affords 
besides, important means for extending the quantity of syllables, 
and consequently for expressing certain states of mind, with 
deliberate dignity. In the double form, the wave denote- sneer, 
mockery, petulence, contempt, and scorn; still these last two 
are more conspicuously exhibited by conjoining aspiration with 
the -ingle wave. 

Radical Stress, From the forcible character <>f this 
stress, it is employed for increasing the Impressiveness of the 
other vocal Bigns of the passions, capable of receiving it. Al- 
though it is more particularly applicable to immutable syllables. 



496 YOCAL SIGNS OF THOUGHT AND PASSION. 

yet when we read rapidly, it is used even on those of indefinite 
quantity : but rapid reading necessarily weakens its force. 
Mirth, impatience, anger, and rage, are generally uttered with 
haste, and therefore take on this stress, in emphatic places. 
It is employed on imperative words ; for it has a degree of 
positiveness, similar to that expressed by the downward inter- 
vals of intonation. 

The Median Stress. The radical stress is used for enforcing 
expression on short syllables. The median enhances the ex- 
pression which requires a long quantity, together with a delibe- 
rate and graceful utterance. I say, together with deliberation; 
since long quantities do sometimes, assume the abrupt opening 
of the radical, or the final jerk, of the vanishing stress. The 
states of mind, calling for median force 3 particularly the 
thoughtive dignity of the second, and the plaintiveness of 
the semitone 3 are those represented by waves of the vari- 
ous intervals. Of these kinds are awe, respect, solemnity, 
reverence, and supplication, that make our division of senti- 
mentive expression. This median stress may perhaps, be exe- 
cuted on a prolonged rise or fall of the simple fifth and octave ; 
thus the wide downward vanish of surprise, and wide upward 
vanish of interrogation, may sometimes be invested with this 
graceful form of force. 

The Vanishing Stress. This stress, and its expression have 
been so particularly noticed, in a former section, that it is 
unnecessary here to repeat the detail. Although far inferior, 
in dignity to the median, it is sometimes highly expressive of 
the state represented by the semitone and wider intervals, 
such as grief, surprise, and interrogation ; for by impressing 
the extremes of these intervals on the ear, it points out their 
several ranges more distinctly than they are marked by the 
attenuated vanish. It may seem to be a nice distinction, but 
it is nevertheless true and practical, that care must be taken, 
not to let this stress run into the thorough form ; since this last, 
as before remarked, rather obscures the interrogative expression. 
Compound Stress. So much was said, on this subject, in the 
thirty-eighth section, that the reader is referred to it. The 



VOCAL SIGNS OF THOUGHT AXD PASSIOX. 497 

compound, like the median, vanishing, and thorough stress, and 
the loud concrete, cannot be made on short syllables. On pro- 
longed quantity, it is the sign of energy or violence, in the 
passion represented by it. 

The Thorough Stress. We refer to the thirty-ninth section, 
for an account of this sign of rudeness, and vulgarity, when 
applied to long syllabic quantity, in current discourse. By 
the hardness of its 'touch,' it destroys the graceful outline of 
the equable concrete, while it heavily overlays that delicacy of 
gradation in the tinted vanish, so essential to the refined 
picture of thought and passion, in the wonderful design and 
coloring of true and natural speech. 

On the subject of the Loud Concrete, as a sign of expression, 
I have nothing to add worthy of record, beyond what has been 
previously said. 

The Tremor of the Second and of Wider Intervals. The 
tremulous movement of these intervals designates a number of 
states of mind considerably different from each other. And 
here again we have an instance of a principle widely influential 
in the expression of the passions ; for these states, though set 
within the same general-frame of intonation, have their specific 
divisions marked by the conventional terms which describe 
them. The tremor of the second and of wider intervals, is 
employed for exultation, mirth, pride, haughtiness, sneer, de- 
rision, and contempt; and in effecting these expressions, the 
tittles may move through the simple rise or fall, or through 
the wave. 

The Tremor of the Semitone. The tremulous movement 
through the semitone, on a tonic element, is a form of the cry- 
ing-voice. Used in syllabic intonation, it implies a deeper 
38 than that, associated with the simple semitone; and 
expresses in a greater or less degree, the condition of suffering, 
grief, tenderness, and supplication; yet widely as they may 
differ from cadi other, they alike fall, when carried to excess, 
into the tremulous intonation; their difference being marked 
by the conventional phrase. 

The Aspiration, The pure quality of the tonics and Bub- 



498 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOUGHT AND PASSION. 

tonics, when partly obscured by its union with aspiration, 
denotes many and widely different states of mind ; yet with the 
aid of the conventional signs, it can clearly express them all. 
It accompanies the force of vociferation ; is the faint sign of 
secrecy ; and is joined with energetic utterance, when this is 
not strained into the falsette. It also indicates earnestness, 
curiosity, surprise, and horror. On a former occasion, con- 
tempt, sneer, and scorn, were assigned to the wave, particularly 
in its unequal form. Yet even this does not carry the full 
measure of their expression, if not conjoined with aspiration : 
and further, the union of aspiration even with simple upward 
and downward wider intervals, may represent these several 
states of mind. 

The Cfuttural Vibration. This is a harsh and grating vocal 
sign ; and denotes all those states of mind classed under ill- 
humor ; including dissatisfaction, peevishness, and discontent. 
But it likewise appears in the strained ferocity of rage, and 
revenge, and is the common sign to children and others of an 
emphatic rebuke. It also has an import of sneer, contempt, 
and scorn ; all of which, under the same natural or vocal sign 
are distinguished by the conventional word or phrase. 

Of the JEmphatic Vocule. This is exclusively an indication 
of force, and in the final abrupt elements of particular words 
is the sign of anger and rage, and of vehemence in any pas- 
sion. It is however of rare occurrence ; and being almost 
needless in cultivated elocution, ought perhaps to be even more 
rare than it is. 

The Broken Melody. The Current melody of Narrative 
style has been represented as a succession of diatonic intona- 
tions ; yet employing occasionally, for sentimentive expression, 
a longer time, a fuller quantity, and a wider appropriate inter- 
val, both of concrete and of discrete pitch ; and intersected by 
pauses, applied as often as the thought, or expression may 
require. Sometimes, particular states of mind overrule the 
occasions, and grammatical proprieties of pausing, thereby pro- 
ducing notable rests after very short phrases, and even after 
every word, without reference to the connections of syntax. I 



VOCAL SIGXS OF THOUGHT AND PASSION. 490 

use the term Broken-Melody, to signify the interruptions, 
sometimes produced by the excess of certain passions. 

The effect of this function will be understood, by the physi- 
ological explanation of it. 

In the section on the mechanism of the voice, two kinds of 
expiration, were described; one resembling the act of sighing, 
whereby all the breath is sent forth, in a single impulse of 
greater or less duration ; within which, scarcely more than one 
or two words can be uttered with ease. The other is used in 
common speech. Within it, we are able to utter whole sen- 
tences, by a frugal use of the breath, in giving out small por- 
tions at a time, to successive syllables. Since the former 
manner of expression, seems to draw off all the contents of the 
lungs, it may be called the Exhausting-breath : and the latter, 
from its being held bach, to be dealt out in such portions as 
syllables require, may be called, for want of a better name, the 
Holding-breath. 

It was said formerly -> an infant begins to speak in the 
exhausting-expiration. It occurs likewise when we are 'out of 
breath,' from exercise ; and in the extreme debility of disease. 
Hence in these cases, there is often not more than one syllable 
heard in a single act of expiration. The breath of the tremu- 
lous movement of laughter and crying, is of this kind. The 
tremor docs indeed create a slight difference here; but if the 
reader will for a moment make the experiment, he will feci ; lie 
quickly laughs and cries himself, so to speak, to the bottom of 
his breath ; nor can he, without an inhaling pause, continue 
the tremulous function, for that extended time, of expiration, 
Which is so easily effected on the breath of common speech. 
Young children, in violent crying, sometimes so exhaust the 
lun its, that there is a considerable pause between the ebb and 
iiow of respiration, much to the alarm of inexperienced mothers. 

This exhausting-breath, may be produced by a high degree 
ef mental excitement. Deep distress involuntarily creates it, 
in the form of a sigh. Hence, iii the excess of mental Buffer- 
ing, or bodily pain, the holding power is lost, and we Bpeak In 
the exhausting-breath ; with but one, or at most, two or three 



500 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOUGHT AND PASSION. 

words within a single act of expiration : and thus by repeated 
intersections of the inhaling pauses, the Broken-melody is pro- 
duced. The case will be the same, should an excess of excite- 
ment blend the tremor of laughter or of crying, with the 
current of discourse ; for by the exhausting power of these 
functions, the melody must be interrupted, through the frequent 
necessity for inspiration. It may be asked, why the breath 
cannot be rapidly recovered, as in the momentary rests of 
speech that are sometimes scarcely perceptible. The reason is 
thisj In the holding-expiration of common discourse, all the 
breath is not discharged from the lungs ; such a quantity only 
is gradually spent upon the words, as may be imperceptibly 
restored by an instant act of inspiration. But in speaking with 
the exhausting-expiration, there is an expulsion of nearly all 
the breath by an extreme contraction of the chest ; while the 
subsequent act of re-filling the lungs requires a degree of expan- 
sion and a depth of draught, that cannot be imperceptibly per- 
formed, and that occupy the time of the remarkable pauses in 
the Broken-melody. 

It is not necessary to speak of the phrases of intonation, 
employed in this peculiar melody. They may be of every spe- 
cies ; though, from the many interruptions of the current, the 
relationships of the phrases are not so perceptible nor so im- 
portant in practical effect, as in the more connected sequences 
of a common melody. 



I have thus endeavored to open the way for a full and more 
precise description of the vocal signs of passion, and for a sys- 
tematic arrangement of them, with the states of mind they seve- 
rally express. They have been regarded as individuals, although 
not one is ever heard alone ; and in some instances many are 
united in a single act of expression. Indeed, they are em- 
ployed in every manner of compatible combination. Thus a 
feeble and a forcible sound cannot exist in the same impulse of 
utterance ; yet either of these conditions may be conjoined 



VOCAL SIGXS OF THOUGHT AXD PASSION. 501 

severally with all the forms of pitch, or quality, or time. No 
one interval of pitch can, during the same syllabic impulse, be 
another interval ; but any interval of pitch, may as occasions 
require, be simultaneous in execution with any form of quality, 
time, or force. So in the wave, the intervals of pitch may be 
consecutive in all possible ways ; and these ways, either in 
interval, or arrangement, may be conjoined with every use of 
the voice, not at variance with their definition. 

By the use then of the comparatively limited number of vocal 
signs here enumerated, together with the assistant means of 
conventional language, the apparently infinite forms of expres- 
sion in speech are produced. The preceding specification of 
these signs, and the numerical limitation of the terms of their 
nomenclature, at once afford an observer the means to survey, 
through the composure of a classifying reflection, the whole 
extent of this supposed infinity ; and thereby, to change a vul- 
gar, and distracting wonder at immensity, into an intelligent 
admiration of the obvious combinations and endless inter- 
mutable variety of a few distinguishable constituents. 

The reader may now see why I have limited this work to the 
consideration of the forms of expression, in their separate state ; 
or have regarded only a few of their combinations. To give an 
extended detail of their possible groups, would be beyond my 
design in setting forth the broad Philosophy of speech. Nor 
indeed is it necessary under a practical view ; for having analyti- 
cally resolved the apparent complexity of speech into its assign- 
able constituents, we cannot be at a loss to synthetically com- 
bine them, when necessary, for every purpose of expression. 

From a review of our history of the instinctive signs of the 
passions, and a reference to the limited amount of their modes 
and forms, compared with the unlimited variety of mental con- 
ditions witli their combinations, to be expressed, we art' .-truck 
with the disproportion between their respective numbers : while 
we learn, at the same time, how the deficiencies in the instinc- 
tive signs are supplied. For in the 

First place. The same vocal sign is used for more than one 
state of mind: as in the numerous class, respectively denoted 
by the semitone, and by the downward intervals. 



502 VOCAL SIGNS OF THOUGHT AND PASSION. 

Second. Some of those states, generically represented by 
the same natural sign, have yet their specific difference marked 
by the artificial sign, or conventional language that describes 
them. Thus the downward octave expresses equally, command, 
and astonishment ; their difference, under the same intonation, 
being signified by the imperative word, and by the phrase that 
declares the astonishment. 

Third. A great number of the mental states have no instinc- 
tive or vocal sign, but depend, for their expression, altogether on 
descriptive language. Thus there are no vocal signs by which 
a speaker can inform us, even if he would, of his avarice, his 
vanity, or his remorse. They must be shown in personal 
action, or be confessed by his verbal declaration. There 
may indeed be resources enough, in the possible combinations 
of all the modes, forms, degrees, and varieties of the vocal 
signs, to furnish an expression for every thought and passion ; 
but this estimate and classification having never yet been made, 
the subject must lay over, for an age of the Physical Philoso- 
phy of the mind, as well as of the voice. 

Having throughout the preceding sections particularly de- 
scribed the constituents of speech, which in their various and 
respective uses, denote the mental states of thought and pas- 
sion $ I must offer a few remarks on the subject of that diffi- 
culty which a long habit of ignorance and error, in the old 
school of Elocution, may create in acquiring a practical com- 
mand over the true and natural system of the voice. When 
the meaning of our terms for the states of mind, and for their 
corresponding vocal signs is understood, there will be no great 
hesitation in recognizing their exemplified distinctions, nor in 
acquiring a facility in executing them ; and it will then be 
found, that the use of all the apparently novel modes and forms 
of the voice, in the manner proposed by our Scientific system, 
which has raised the alarm of difficulty, is only a return ■$ after 
ages on ages of conventional theory and delusion 3 to the in- 
stinctive and truthful purpose and practice of what must have 
been the natural Archetype of Speech. For the developments 
of this volume have brought me to the conviction, that the sys- 



VOCAL SIGNS OF THOUGHT AND PASSIOX. 503 

tern of plain diatonic melody, as a ground for the expressive 

intervals, is the true ordination of the speaking voice: and ft 
reference to the universal wisdom of Nature, even under the 
vicious habits of man, shows, that as in the benevolence of her 
final causes, she is prone to good and not to evilj so, to give a 
particular instance, the voice is prone, ' as the sparks fly up- 
wards,' to this ordination for denoting the two leading condi- 
tions of the mind. Under this view, it would appear, that when 
the design of nature has not been perverted or overruled, we 
should occasionally find examples of greater or less accordance 
with her adjusted system : and I must say, in support of this 
inference, that although I have never found a Speaker, con- 
forming in all points to our proposed rules j yet I have met with 
some instances, in which the natural ordination has so far pre* 
vailed, that its purposes have in a great measure been accom- 
plished; and others, in which it has not been so much con- 
founded or thwarted by corrupt example, as to prevent our 
scientific method, from developing the latent faculty of proper 
and elegant speech. I here refer to science, as universally, a 
true picture of the things and laws of nature ; and, in our pre- 
sent case, as hiiiimbW mf the influence of bad education and 
example, on the instinctive tendencies of the voice. 

He who has a knowledge of the constituents of speech, and 
of their powers and uses, is the potential master of the science 
of Elocution; and he must then derive from his ear, his sense 
of propriety, and his taste, the means of actually applying it 
with success. When this is accomplished, it will be found that 
the performance of Scientific speech, is no more difficult to the 
Actor, than the performance of music is to thousands of little 
girls whenever they are taught it : and that with a proper nota- 
tion of the vocal signs of the former, one will be as easily read 
and executed at Bight as the other. 

I have read somewhere, that the Ancients practiced what 
they called Silent Heading. It is possible, they meant, going 
over in auricular imagination, the forms of pitch, and of the 
other modes of the voice: for Ave know that this memorial or 
imaginative reading is practicable, and may be employed, both 



504 VOCAL SIGNS OP THOUGHT AND PASSION. 

for our own peculiar manner, when we are conscious of it, and 
for that of others, when we have the memorial power of silently 
imitating them. This is the process of the Mimic; for his 
memory of any peculiarity in the vocal signs of those he imitates, 
must silently precede his audible utterance of it. This faculty 
cannot however, be exercised to any intent of present or future 
pleasure or improvement, except with a precise knowledge and 
nomenclature of the vocal signs ; for without these, there could 
be no exactness in the ideas of our own peculiarity, or that of 
others. But with our present analytic knowledge of the signs 
of thought and passion, and with a visible and conventional 
notation for these signs, we may distinctly perceive, study, 
correct, and improve our own speech, and that of others, both 
of past and present time, with the silent exercise of the imagi- 
nation. We know that the perceptions of the several senses, are 
represented in the memory ; that the images through the eye 
and the ear, are clearer and more readily excitable, than 
through the others ; and that we may memorially think of any 
peculiarity in the voice. Now, in intonation, the different 
intervals ; in force, the different stresses ; in time, the different 
quantities; and the various qualities and pauses 3 when once 
perceived and named, have a comparative peculiarity, so strong- 
ly impressed on the memory, that we can think them, in its 
silent reading. Thus the process of the imagination with audi- 
ble, is like its process with visible ideas. The painter has on 
his memory, the ocfular image of a real, or of an invented sub- 
ject ; and lays on his tablet, the visible copy of his ideal lines 
and colors. The musical Composer has in his memory, impres- 
sions of all the constituents of song ; and silently arranging 
them by his mind's ear, notes down his melody and harmony, 
for others either silently or audibly to read. There is no dif- 
ference then, between the method in a silent reading of music, 
and that of a silent reading of speech. Indeed to me, from 
the less complex structure of its melody, the reading of speech 
is the easier of the two. 

I have near me at this moment, the notations from scenes 
in Hamlet, and Lear; sent to me by one, who acquired 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 505 

a full knowledge of the Scientific system, and its practical 
application, from an unassisted study of this volume ; in like 
manner as the volume itself was written from the study of 
nature alone. Now whether these notations, and my opinions 
of them, are correct or otherwise, I can both silently and audi- 
bly read them ; and thus prove to myself, and could illustrate 
to others, the truth and the practical application of the subject 
before us. 



SECTION XLIX. 

Of the 31eans of Instruction in Elocution. 

I have thus far endeavored to set before the reader, a copy 
of the all-perfect Design of Nature, in the construction of 
Speech. It is necessary, if we may still carry on the figure, 
to furnish at the same time, a 'Working plan,' to him who may 
wish to build up for himself, a delightful Home of Philosophy 
and taste, or a popular Temple of Fame, in Elocution. 

If the reader is one of those, who from disappointment in 
higher hopes, have at last resolved to receive their Station in 
life, through the suffrages of ignorance ; and who in their accom- 
plishments are careless of rising above the discernment of their 
unthinking constituents, let him pass by this section. A little 
will serve his purposes ; and the instinct of his ambition, without 
the wise designs of human assiduity, will enable him to be easily 
the file-leader of his herd. But if he believes in that fine induc- 
tion of the Greeks, that 'good things are difficult; ' If he Bees 
the successful pretender, still restless and dissatisfied, in having 
made captives only of the ignorant; if he desires to work for 
33 



506 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

high and hard masters, and to take his ultimate repose by the 
side of their ever-during approbation, he may receive from the 
following pages, some assistance towards the accomplishment of 
his resolution to acquire the art of Reading-Well. 

Can Elocution be taught ? This question has heretofore been 
asked through ignorance. It shall in another age, or I mistake 
the prevailing power of science, be asked only through folly. 

The sceptics on the subject of the practicability of teaching 
elocution, appear under three classes. To the First belong 
those, who knowing the ways of the voice have never been 
broadly and distinctly traced, believe they never can be reduced 
to assignable rules. This opinion is grounded on the idea that 
the expressive effects of speech proceed from some ' occult 
quality,' or metaphysical working of the ' spirit ;' which how- 
ever, is neither high nor low, loud nor soft ; nor in short, any 
of the known and appreciable modes of vocal sound. They 
who thus overlook the due revelation, which Nature never with- 
holds from the close and fervent observer, seem to have just 
such an idea of vocal expression, as poetical school-girls have 
of the smiles, and ' side-long glances ' of their interesting young 
admirers j that they are not a palpable effect of the physical 
form of the face, in its state of rest, and in its various motions ; 
but a kind of immaterialism, which darts from the eye and 
breathes from the lips ; a i soul,' as it were in the countenance, 
which is yet, in the words of the song, 'neither shape nor 
feature.' 

The scepticism of the Second class promulgates the idea, 
that accomplishments in elocution are the result of certain in- 
describable powers of l genius,' and that the happy possessor of 
them is the production of one of ' nature's moments of enthu- 
siasm.' Such sleight of tongue, to hide the plain agency of 
natural causes, is not disdained by many who possess powers, 
sufficient to set them far above the stale-grown tricks for repu- 
tation. He who has the truth and modesty of a master in his 
art, knows that he is distinguished from the thousands who 
surround him, not more by a superiority over their vulgar 
notions on the subject of ambition, and the chances of success, 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 507 

than by a singleness in purpose and zeal, and the accumulative 
power of a self-gathering docility : nor does he withhold instruc- 
tion, in the fear of rivalship ; since with justified confidence in a 
well-tried knowledge, he persuades himself, that if any useful 
purpose should make it necessary, he can afterwards, always 
keep pace with a competitor, and then surpass himself. 

Those who constitute the Third class are too intelligent to 
believe in this mystical doctrine of the ' Inspiration of genius ;' 
yet they hold, that the art of reading-well can be taught only 
by imitation. Elocution may indeed, too often, have satisfied 
its faith with the creed of Imitation ; and thereupon, set-up its 
different Idols, for public worship. But when has the world, 
on a single subject of inquiry, ever found, in that faith or fic- 
tion which sees evidence in what is not to be seen alike by all, 
any other result than that of sophistical labor, without product, 
and illiberal quarrels, without end. Hence the vain conceit of 
forming a school or doctrine of Imitative Elocution : since the 
several partizans of different favorites, will never agree to raise 
any one individual, to examplary superiority. An example to 
be useful and permanent in art, must be set-up with the con- 
sent of all : and that consent can be drawn only from a common 
and accessible source of instruction and knowledge, not from 
individual or party admiration. It was therefore, under igno- 
rance of there being a common source of knowledge in the few 
and classified constituents of speech, that such a multifarious, 
and versatile substitute as Imitation, for that Cynosure to every 
eye alike 3 the stedfast unity of Principles 3 was at first pro- 
posed. It is the design of this essay, to furnish from Nature, 
and not from variable examples of human authority, those 
describable truths of the art, on which all may begin their 
agreement; and by extending this consent, may at last raise 
an observatiye and universal school of Elocution. 

I must here notice the objection, often made to teaching Elocu- 
tion by systematic rules j that it will necessarily produce a for- 
mal, and affected, or as it is called without foundation, ;i theatric 
style of speech. This charge is made either by those who do not, in 
all cases, know the meaning and power of instructive principles. 



508 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

which, are indeed, only the exponents of a classified knowledge 
in the arts ; or by those who have had the experience of some 
very loose and narrow rules for their own narrow and unsuc- 
cessful schemes.* 

* An especial form, and the fullest force of this objection has lately been 
embodied into a so-called system of Elocution, logically woven out of common 
learning, and fair-faced reasonings, first published under the Article, Rhetoric, 
in the Encyclopedia Metropolitana ; and subsequently under the name of a 
profound, as all logicians are thought to be, and accomplished Archbishop ; thus 
adding an authority of high official and personal character, to the outspread 
influence, and confirmatory judgment of a sworn brotherhood of British Con- 
tributors, of the foremost reputed intelligence, learning, taste, and Scientific 
Rank, in the United Kingdom. 

In one of our prefaces, we recorded the majesterial decision of the President of 
the American Philosophical society, that any analysis of the expression of the 
human voice is impossible. And I have now to quote from a high dignitary of 
the Church, the equally dogmatic declaration, that the employment of a suc- 
cessful analysis, far from leading to a proper, energetic, and elegant use of the 
voice, would entirely pervert and corrupt it. In the Fourth Part of his Rhe- 
toric, the first chapter, and fourth section, he says : ' But there is one principle 
running through all their precepts,' [the precepts of those who would teach elocu- 
tion by precept,) 'which being, according to my views, radically erroneous, 
must, if those views be correct, vitiate every system founded upon it. The 
principle I mean is, that in order to acquire the best style of Delivery, it is 
requisite to study analytically the emphases, tones, pauses, degrees of loudness, 
which give the proper effect to each passage that is well delivered ; to frame 
rules founded on the observation of these ; and then, in practice, deliberately 
and carefully to conform the utterance to these rules, so as to form a complete 
artificial system of Elocution.' ( Whether the writer had ever seen the ' Philosophy 
of the human voice,'' does not appear ; and the case is the stronger if he had notj, 
for, had he read it through, the objection could not have been more directly pointed 
at its analysis and rules.) 

1 That such a plan not only directs us into a circuitous and difficult path, 
towards an object which may be reached by a shorter and straighter, but also, 
in most instances, completely fails of that very object, and even produces, 
oftener than not, effects the very reverse of what it designed, is a doctrine for 
which it will be necessary to offer some reasons.' 

Now, the good Prelate's reason's are employed, on the one hand, against an 
analytical method, which, from not quite comprehending it, he thinks would 
produce an Artificial manner of speech ; and on the other, in favor of his notion 
of what he calls the Natural manner; not drawn, as it should be, from Nature, 
but founded on the following unfounded remark, by Adam Smithy towards the 
close of his reflections on 'the Imitative Arts,' already referred-to at the end 
of our nineteenth section. ' Though in speaking, a person may show a very 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IX ELOCUTION. 

This objection is grounded on the idea of some imaginary 
method, supposed to be free from this analytic formality, and 
preceptive affectation 3 and called, the 'Natural Manner.' But 
this manner having no describable standard of its own truth, 
propriety and taste, is vaguely referred to an 'occult' animal 
instinct, under that boastful term of human vanity, Prerogative 
4 Genius :' which, through its untrained and wayward ignorance, 
would, with an impudent claim to an inborn privilege, reject 
the wise and prevailing efforts of educated art. Yet instinct 
even when thus nominally dignified into ' Genius,' seems to be 
nothing more than the result of an organization prepared by 
nature to receive the impression of directive causes, which 
thereupon act necessarily, to excite the organic power, limited 
as it may be, and to exercise it to its end. As this organiza- 
tion of instinct begins to ivork itself into mind, the knowledge 
thereby acquired 3 for we are conscious of mind, only through 
knowledge 3 creates by slow degrees, another state of mind or 
another more complicated and effective organization, so to 
speak ; on which the objects or facts of an art, act more broadly 
as directive causes, to excite the no less necessary and unerring 
purposes, and practical ends of science. Now the practical 
ends of Elocution, as an elegant art, are, to convey our thoughts, 
and passions, with truth, propriety, and taste, and consequently 
without the error and deformity of awkwardness, or affectation. 
When therefore, by analytic knowledge of the constituents of 
an art, principles 3 or classifications of its facts, for some effec- 
tive purpose 3 are framed, these principles become, as it were, 
the scientific instinct of the new and more complicated organi- 
zation of the mind, in its state of acquired knowledge: just as 
in its own way, the original and more simple organization of 

agreeable tone of voice, yet if he seems to intend to show it; if he appears to 
listen to the sound of his own voice, and as it were to tune it into a pleasing 
modulation, he never fails to offend, as guilty of a most disagreeable affec- 
tation.' 

It lias been one of the objects of our work to answer reasoning by faol : and 
though we here notice the Prelate's adopted, and unsifted fancies, the serious 
argument against them, which we do not require, others will hereafter draw, 
for their satisfaction, from the demonstrative answer of Observation and Time. 



510 THE MEANS OE INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

nature, exercises its limited and merely animal instinct. And 
as this instinct, or call it 'genius,' of the Old Elocution pro- 
duces what the objectors to the use of Analytic Rules, assume 
to be the propriety and grace of its 'Natural Manner;' so the 
regeneration of the mind, as we described it, to a new life of 
accumulated knowledge, has necessarily a tendency, in its sci- 
entific instinct, towards the natural manner of a more compre- 
hensive, refined, and effective Elocution. It is then the limited 
animal instinct of the Old School, and its ignorance of the wide 
resources of the scientific instinct of the New with its analytic, 
more exact and exalted natural manner > that does really pro- 
duce in itself the formality, and the theatric affectation, which 
it deprecates and blindly charges on a better system. For it 
must be borne in mind, that the important vocal Mode of Into- 
nation, outlawed as it is from all inquiry, has with its power 
of expression, been heretofore employed, whether by the rule- 
rejectors, or the rule-adopters j for there is little difference in 
the event of their failures 3 only with the intonative, and limited 
resources of the brute. 

It has been the oversight and misfortune of the Old school 
of Imitation, that even with the striking analogies of Ehetoric, 
Music, Painting and the Landscape, severally founded on the 
relations of these Arts, to capacities and principles in the 
human mind 3 they never perceived, though they obscurely used 
without perceiving, the equally elegant, and for human pur- 
poses, the more essential relations of the modes and forms of 
the voice, to the mental states of thought and passion ; and 
thus remained deaf to the cries of sister-principles of propriety 
and taste, craving to be admitted into the Esthetic family, as 
the New-born art of Elocution. 

From what is here said, we may offer three remarks on this 
objection to the use of Rules in the Art of Reading. First. 
An attempt to teach by rules, under a partial knowledge of the 
constituents of speech, could never in the old school, except by 
chance, have been elegantly right ; and must have been often 
formally and affectedly wrong. Second. It was from the want 
of the Universal Rules of Speech, drawn from a full analysis 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IX ELOCUTION. 511 

of its constituents, that led the old school, to conclude; there 
could be none. And it was this ivant, that led its followers, in 
groping after an indefinable excellence, "whether natural or 
artificial, to fall unconsciously into their inherent formality and 
affectation ; the real causes of which they had not a sufficient 
light of analysis and rule, to enable them to avoid. Third. 
The eifect of our proposed system of analysis and principles for 
teaching the art of reading, and for insuring its freedom from 
formality and affectation, will be the same in every other art, 
whether useful or esthetic. In all, it is necessary to know what 
is to be done, and what means are to be thoughtfully employed, 
to do it well ; to practice its rules, at first perhaps awkwardly, in 
closely and sloivly thinking of their application* and thus by fre- 
quent repetition, to enable the act, so far to wean itself from the 
directive thought, as to become an efficacious habit ; and finally, 
to use a full knowledge of the art, with almost the unconscious 
power of what we have metaphorically called a scientific 
instinct. The purely acquired human art of Swimming, unas- 
sisted by instinct, though learned with tedious effort j directed by 
earnest thought j and only mastered at last by careful attention 
to every imitative and embarrassing motion ; is afterwards, 
from that attention fading into habit, successfully employed in 
danger ; with the thought only of the shore to be readied, and 
the life to be saved : and in like manner, the purity, propriety, 
energy and elegance of rhetorical composition; which though 
slowly perceived, and only thoroughly learned, by close attention 
to their particulars and the rules that should govern them ; are 
afterwards, without a consciousness of those particulars, applied 
in public oratory to the broad purposes of a still Belf-possessed 
and successful eloquence. 

I have often been led to consider the opposite characters of 
propriety in the style of Composition, and of impropriety in 
the Vocal habits of speaker*. Our Western "World is overrun 
by itinerant lecturers, and ubiquitous speech-makers of every 
sort; the same in class with the Older Sophists } but without 
their careful Rhetoric, and the candid warning <>f their Name: 
yet however humble their subject-matter and their taste, the 



512 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

most insignificant and illiterate so to call them, will often be 
as connected in their words and sentences as the orator of 
higher power and scholarship ; while in their respective into- 
nations, and other modes of the voice, they are sometimes both 
alike, no more than negatively agreeable and correct, and 
generally, in various degrees indistinct, affected, monotonous, 
outrageous, or false, to a cultivated ear. 

Two reasons at least, may be assigned for this difference. 
Onej that the crowd of the world is too often satisfied with a 
careless manner in its affairs ; and as the greater part of what 
is called Oratory, compared with the permanent words and 
works of Wisdom, relates only to the events and opinions of 
the day j it is looked upon as unnecessary to waste attention on 
the voice ; especially under the belief, that Nature spontane- 
ously directs all that on this point may be required. This is 
exemplified by the many instances of deformed elocution, 
among the renowned dialectic speakers of the Senate, the Pulpit, 
and the Bar. Thus the vocal part of education, being con- 
sidered as not essential, the Orator in his ambitious contentions, 
and fanatical delusions, thinks or finds, he does not require its 
assistance. Hence with a Slavery-agitator in the American 
Congress, and an Abolition-preacher about the streets, there 
is equally an ignorant disregard to the proper, and certainly 
to the elegant uses of the voice. 

The other reason shows why speakers are equally correct, or 
nearly so, in the grammatical character of their discourse. 
For having by truth or sophistry, to convince or to persuade 
their hearers, it must be with a logical order of thought, how- 
ever defective or false the intonation. To render their language 
comprehensible, they are obliged in childhood to learn the right 
sense of words ; afterwards to acquire by book or imitation the 
proprieties of grammar, with the meaning of phrases and punc- 
tuation ; and finally to follow examples of a proper arrange- 
ment of words and sentences. In this case the speaker is 
compelled to acknowledge his ignorance and his obligation to 
learn. And while neither the Speaker nor the Audience per- 
ceive a difference between the right and the wrong in the voice j 



THE MEANS OE INSTRUCTION IX ELOCUTION. 513 

ignorance with both, being their defense against knowledge j 
neither thinks it necessary to learn, and the speaker at least, 
regards the power of properly using his voice as a natural gift, 
which would be forfeited by the interference of systematic 
instruction. 

These appear to me to be two of the reasons that Parlia- 
mentary Burkes; and itinerant Fanatics with other Dema- 
gogues, follow the same rules of grammar and composition in 
their style ; and follow no rule at all, in the corrupted instinct 
of their intonation. 

These are our views of some of the objections, made against 
an attempt to teach the Esthetic uses of the voice, by syste- 
matic and communicable principles. "We will not confer im- 
portance on them by special refutation. In so doing, we should 
only record some vain opinions of this age, which a future one 
need not know. At the present time, let us not be concerned 
if the history of the voice contained in this essay, and the 
Plan of instruction founded upon it, should be ' either stumb- 
ling-block or foolishness,' to the groping school of mystagogues 
and imitators.* 

* la addition to the impossibility of proving to those, who in the present age 
pass for Philosophers and Thinking men, and who assert that Elocution cannot 
be taught by analysis and rule ; it is no less hopeless to persuade those to learn, 
who, not quite so impenetrable as the former, only maintain; it would give no 
return for the trouble. Why should we labor, they ask, to acquire that, which 
when needed will be no more than the spontaneous result of understanding and 
passion ; or to improve that which some visionary and interested reformer tells 
us, is not well done already ? 

This question is so broadly answered by the record of facts in this volume, 
that I shall here merely illustrate its erroneous suggestion, by comparing our 
humble subject of Elocution with the transcending subject of Government ; the 
principles of which, equally with those of speech, everyone thinks he sufficiently 
understands. 

Unlike as these subjects may seem when thus presented together, they have 
through ages, each in its own misguided efforts, shown the same proportion 
of grave pretensions, of unfounded or ill-applied facts, of erudite discussions, 
of indefinite precept, of contradictory practice, and of deplorable failure in its 
boasted promises. Each has had a thousand different and contending BOhoolsj 
more than thousands of examples of individual authority; wil 
authorities variously overthrowing one another, and neither able t" Furnish a 



514 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

The preceding history furnishes materials, for raising elocu- 
tion to the condition of a Regular Art, if not of a Science ; and 
we must look to the comparisons, and conclusions of taste, for 
precepts to direct the use of these materials. Our history will 
not only afford the means for reducing the arbitrary fashion of 
the voice, to something like that method and rule, to which the' 
other fine arts have been already brought, among their educated 
and reflecting votaries 3 but it opens a new field on the subject 
of instruction. All arts when reduced to their elements, have 

general principle, or instance, for universal approbation: no speaker, whether 
by his ' Genius' or his ' Imitation' able to answer the accurate demands of the 
mind and ear : no sovereign Despot, or Democratic sovereign, able to satisfy 
the wishes and the wants of the subject or the citizen: and each from a similar 
cause. One has no uniform rule of expression, drawn from nature, for directing 
his speech ; the other no uniform or consistent rule of Law, Morality, or Re- 
ligion, to control his conduct. The speaker, ignorant of what is proper or 
elegant in the voice, falls into his 'natural manner,' and disputes himself into 
enmity with the ' natural manner' of another ; the Governed, not finding what 
is wise and just, falls into the selfishness of his passions, and brings his differ- 
ence with others to a civil war. The Statesman narrows-down the great 
problem, on the causes and cure of the anti-social vices of pride, vanity, avarice, 
ignorance and ambition, to the futile question of the comparative wisdom and 
the rights of the Many, and of the Few : just as the Elocutionist has narrowed 
the great scope of the vocal means and end in nature, by a paltry classification 
of the disciples of the Art, into those of ' Genius' and ' Imitation.' 

But, in artful transformation, the Few in government through pride and 
wealth, assume the power of the Many: while the Many, by falsehood and 
fraud, assume the cunning of the Few. The many in government, are then 
made to believe, that man is incapable of any other idea, than that of being a 
slave to the Prime management of a Royal Minister, or to the Prime Knavery 
of a self-serving Demagogue. The Many in Elocution are made to believe, 
they can speak-well, only through the l Inspiration of Identity,' or the 'natural 
manner' of the School. And thus bad readers, under the restrictive authority 
of the Old Elocution ; and the miserable sufferers, under make-shift Monarchies 
and Republics, are alike led to comfort themselves, respectively in their bad 
taste, and unhappiness, by these similar questions of passive submission : Why 
should we raise the ire of the Old School, with trying to read by the new analy- 
sis ? and why should we disturb a Government by trying to reform it? when 
the Masters of vocal instruction and Imperial and Mass-meeting legislators, 
themselves so incorrigible, cannot admit, that the art of Speech in one case, 
and of human happiness in the other, is not as perfect under the present order 
of things, as the purposes of knowledge and taste, and the rights of man can 
ever possibly require ? 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 515 

# 

"been recomposed into systematic schemes for teaching by the 

Primary School of those elements; and it now becomes us to 
try what may be the advantages, as to economy of time, and 
precision of means, in following an elementary plan, for com- 
municating a knowledge of the power and uses of the voice. 

Language was long ago resolved into its alphabetic elements, 
and its Parts of speech. Whereever that analysis is known, the 
art of grammar is with the best success, conducted upon the 
rudimental method. If then the expressive uses of the voice 
should be taught by a similar analysis, the advantage would be 
no less, than that resulting from the alphabetic and grammatical 
resolution. In this way we teach a child the elements and their 
combinations in speech : surely then, there is no reason why a 
clear perception of the varieties of stress, of time, and of into- 
nation, and the power of consciously employing them in cur- 
rent utterance, should not be acquired in a similar elementary 
manner. 

The art of reading-well consists in having all the constituents 
of speech, both alphabetic and expressive, under complete com- 
mand ; that they may be properly applied, for the impressive 
and elegant representation of every state of the mind. I shall 
not however in this section, consider the modes of the voice as 
expressive of thought or passion : but shall describe the means 
for providing the manageable material of speech, whenever 
thought or passion may require its use. 

If I were a teacher of elocution, I would frame a didactic 
system of elementary exercises, similar to that which taught 
me, whatever the well-read critic may find to be new, in this 
work ; and would assign to my pupil a task under the following 
heads : 

Of Practice on the Alphabetic Elements. Notwithstanding 
we are all taught the alphabet, we are not taught the true ele- 
ments of speech : I would therefore require the pupil, to exercise 
his voice on the elements, as they are sounded in a Btrict analy- 
lie of words. In the present school-system of the alphabet, 
many vowels have no peculiar symbol, and nearly all the eon- 
sonants when Beparately pronounced, are heard as syllables, 



516 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

not as elements. If b and Jc and I, be sounded as respectively 
heard in 6-ay, and &-ing, and ?-ove, that is, if we pause after 
these several initial sounds have escaped the organs, we have 
the real element, instead of the compounds he, hay, and ell, as 
they are universally taught : and the like is true of all the 
consonants. 

Let the first lesson consist of a separate, an exact, and a 
repeated pronunciation of each of the thirty-five elements, 
thereby to insure a true and easy execution of their unmingled 
sounds : the pupil being careful to pronounce, not the alpha- 
betic syllable of the schools, but the pure and indivisible vocal 
element ; however unusual and uncouth that sound may in some 
cases, be to his ear. It may be asked 3 if a careful pronuncia- 
tion of words, in which these elements, though combined with 
others, must still be heard, would not give the required exact- 
ness and facility ? I believe it would not. When the elements 
are pronounced singly, they may receive an undivided energy 
of the organic effort, and therewith a clearness of sound, and a 
definite outline, that make a fine preparative for distinct and 
forcible pronunciation in the compounds of speech. And per- 
haps no one who has neglected this elementary practice, is able 
to effect the vocality of h, d, and g, with the force, fulness, 
and duration, required on occasions, for the higher powers and 
graces of elocution. The efficacy of this separate practice, in 
giving a command over the alphabetic sounds, is most remark- 
able in the r. 

The element r is a modification of the vocality of the sub- 
tonics, and denotes two different articulations. One is made by 
a quiet application of the tongue to the roof of the mouth ; the 
other by its quick percussion against that part. The r pro- 
duced by the first organic position, differs very little from the 
short tonic e-rr, and may be called the Quiet r. That made 
by percussion, the Percussive r. The latter has a distinctness 
of character and body of sound, not possessed by the other ; 
and if the metaphor can be appreciated, the parts concerned in 
its formation seem to have a firmer grasp of the breath. Yet 
this Percussive r, even with its vigor, and satisfactory fulness, 



THE MBAHS OF INSTRUCTION IX ELOCUTION. .",17 

will be agreeable only when it consists of one, or at most, two 
or three strokes and rebounds of the tongue : for should it be a 
continued vibration, the effect will be offensively harsh, if 
not expressly designed for a rough or energetic utterance ; but 
even this should be avoided. The perfect r, for the purposes 
of distinct and impressive speech, should consist of a Bingle 
slap and retraction : and it can be made in this manner, by 
assiduous practice, on the solitary element. 

Besides the difficulty of acquiring strength and accuracy in 
this separate pronunciation, certain combinations of the /•, with 
other elements can be effected in an agreeable manner, only 
after long practice. A subtonic or atonic that employs the 
tongue in a certain position, will not readily unite with an ele- 
ment, requiring a quick remove of the tongue to another part 
of the mouth j even when the element is produced, as in the 
quiet r, by a simple pressure of the tongue ; but the difficulty 
of transition is much increased, by the velocity necessary for 
the percussive r. Let us for instance, take the syllabic step 
from d to r, in the word dread. As the formation of d, 
requires the tip of the tongue to be applied to the upper fore- 
teeth j should r be taken quietly, the confluence of these ele- 
ments may be easily made, by retracting the tongue to the 
contiguous place for forming the r. When however we roughen 
the word by the percussive r, the tongue is brought down from 
the teeth, towards its bed, in a kind of drawing-off, for making 
thereby, a sudden impulse against the roof of the mouth ; 
and it requires both effort and skill, to accomplish these suc- 
cessive movements with that quickness, which sjdlabic coales- 
cence requires. 

There is also considerable difficulty in uniting the percussive 
r witli some of the tonics; and the cause is analogous to that 
above described. 

"When the percussive r is set before the tonics, the coales- 
cence is easy, as in rude, reed; but it is not so when it follows 
certain of these elements. If the tonics are of long quantity, 
there is in some cases, only the slightesl difficulty ; as in glare, 
war, far, peer, //(ire, our, //our. Should the short-tonics 



518 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

e-rr, e-nd and ^-n, and most of the other tonics when pro- 
nounced short, precede the percussive r, there will be the un- 
pleasant effort of a hiatus, together with that peculiar effect of 
a union of tonic and aspiration, which forms one of the charac- 
teristics of speech in the natives of Ireland. This will be per- 
ceived, upon pronouncing the following words with the percus- 
sive r ; interpreter, world, irritate, intercourse. The cause 
of the hiatus and of this inevitable Irishism appears in the 
following explanation. 

The tonic sounds, though in greater part laryngeal, are in 
some cases modified by the agency of the tongue and lips. The 
tongue is thus employed in varying positions, from the deepest 
depression in its bed, till nearly in contact with the roof of the 
mouth. Its place in the utterance of a-we is the lowest ; and 
the highest in ee-\, e-nd and i-n. If these short tonics precede 
the percussive r, there is a hiatus in the utterance, from a diffi- 
culty in making the percussion ; and this changes the tonic 
into a semi-aspiration. When a-we precedes r, the tongue 
being in its bed is in the proper position for making the im- 
pulse, and thus the combination of this a-we with the r, is 
easily effected, and is free from aspiration, as in aurelia and 
reward. 

In the case then, of the short tonics preceding the percussive 
r, it is necessary to bring down the tongue from its short-tonic 
position at the roof of the mouth, to its bed 3 to give it starting- 
way, so to speak, for gaining its percussive velocity. The aim 
to effect this in the quickest time, produces the hiatus or 
strained effort of pronunciation. Yet with every endeavor, 
there is still a perceptible interval between the change in the 
position of the tongue, from its short-tonic place down to its 
bed, and subsequently up to the roof of the mouth, the place of 
the percussive r. And as there is no cessation of vocality 
during the time of the change, the depression of the tongue, or 
some other cause, gives that vocality its aspirated character. 
This mingling of aspiration with the short tonic, and the per- 
cussive r, produces the disagreeable effect perceived in the 
utterance of these conjoined elements ; nor can it be altogether 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 519 

avoided, except by using the quiet r, where this effect would 
otherwise occur. 

The difficulty of executing the r, under the circumstances 
above-mentioned will I fear, be insurmountable to those who 
are not all persuaded j the perfection of their accomplishments 
must at last be due to their own habits, their knowledge, and 
their industry. Those who know how necessarily a fruitful 
desire of improvement is the result of wise docility of mind and 
heartfelt resolution, have only to learn that it is within the 
capabilities of time and exertion. How long it may take to 
overcome the difficulties here alluded to, must depend on in- 
stinctive facility of utterance : nor need it be told to those who 
deserve instruction, and will have success. To such persons, it 
is enough that it may be done. 

An exact pronunciation of the elements according to the rule 
of the day, is a matter of importance, not with reference alone 
to the law of fashion. It has a claim of greater dignity. 

When ideas are to be communicated with precision and force, 
it should be by well-known words, not peculiar in sound, nor 
striking by length, nor by difficult utterance. There should be 
no remarkable contrast between them ; no attractive and dis- 
turbing similarity; nor indeed anything in the language, to 
allure attention from the idea conveyed by it. A writer, who 
frequently employs uncommon words, except for technical in- 
struction, never has vividness or strength of style. For the 
accomplishment of these objects, sounds should slip effectively 
into the mind, almost without the notice of the car. And what 
is here said, on the distractions produced by novelty and pecu- 
liarity of words, applies equally to the pronunciation of alpha- 
betic elements; since the least deviation from the assumed 
standard, converts the listener into a critic : and it is perhaps 
speaking within bounds to say, that for every miscalled element 
in discourse, ten succeeding words, if not more, are lost to 

the critical and reflective part of an audience. I have there- 
fore recommended a long-continued practice on the separate 
elements; for acquiring that command over them, which not 
only contributes to the elegance of speech, but at the same time. 



520 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

may help to remove all obscurity from the vocal picture of 
thought and passion. 

Of Practice on tlie Time of Elements. Enough has been 
said in former pages, on the necessity of a full command over 
the time of utterance 3 for effecting the important purposes of 
elocution. 

When a true pronunciation of the elements is acquired, the 
pupil should not, according to the usage of the primer, pass at 
once to their combinations. They are employed in speech 
under different degrees of duration ; and an exercise of the 
voice, through these degrees, on individual elements, creates a 
habit of skilful management, not so well nor so easily acquired 
by practice on the common current of discourse. Let the pupil 
then consider the alphabetic elements as a kind of Time-table, 
on which he is to learn all their varieties of quantity. The 
power of giving well measured length to syllables is so rare 
among speakers, that I have been induced to draw especial 
attention to this elementary method of instruction. 

Although a prolongation of the atonies is of little conse- 
quence 3 let the pupil reiterate his practice on the tonics and 
subtonics, until he finds himself possessed of such a command 
over them, that he may at will, give any quantity required in 
their syllabic combinations. 

The elements 5, d, and g, admitting of only a slight degree 
of quantity, through the prolongation of their feeble vocality, a 
strenuous practice on their individual sounds is necessary to 
render them applicable to the purposes of oratorical time. 

When r is to be prolonged, and the rapid iteration would be 
inappropriate, the quiet form of the element should be em- 
ployed ; since the percussive r, made by a single stroke and 
rebound of the tongue, is necessarily short. 

The element s, when alone and prolonged, is a sign of con- 
tempt. In syllabic combination it is offensive if much extended 
in quantity ; while under its shortest time, it still performs its 
part in speech, and loses much of the character of the hiss. 
Let the pupil therefore practice the shortest quantity on this 
element, by abruptly terminating the breath, or by separating 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 521 

the teeth at the moment its sound is heard ; for this at once 
cuts it short. 

Of Practice on the Vanishing Movement. The considera- 
tion of this subject should perhaps, have been united with the 
last : for an attempt to prolong the elements without reference 
to the equable concrete of speech, is very apt to produce the 
note of song. The difference between these two forms of into- 
nation even on a single tonic, will be perceptible to an experi- 
mental ear, by keeping in mind at the moment of trial, the 
well known and peculiar effect both of speech and of song. 
Should the effort produce an equable concrete, it will not seem 
to be the beginning of a song. The pupil then, without con- 
fusing his ear by other particulars, should exercise his voice on 
the simple form of the radical and vanish, through all extendible 
elements. An unerring power in executing this function, how- 
ever long the quantity may be, will always insure to speech, an 
entire exemption from the character of song. 

In this elementary intonation of the equable concrete, atten- 
tion should be paid to the structure of the vanish. The pupil 
must therefore endeavor to give it that delicate expiration which 
may render its limit almost imperceptible : for this is its proper 
form, except some purpose of expression should require a more 
obvious demarkation. "We often lean the ear in delight, over 
this smooth breathing of sound into silence, by singers ; and 
the master in elocution shall hereafter know, that one of those 
graces which he could never name, and even thought ' beyond 
the reach of artj' but which Art conjoined with Science, is now 
ready to teach him 3 consists in this attenuation and close of the 
syllabic impulse, here recommended as a lesson for a school- 
boy. 

Of Practice on Force.' It is scarcely necessary to say how 
loudness of voice, or the forte, is to be acquired. It is not 
essential to our discipline, that the elements should be uttered 
separately with regard to force; since after the other constitu- 
ents of expressive speech are brought under command, exercise 
on this mode may be effected during the current of discourse. 
Still the ends of instruction would be somewhat easier attained 
34 



522 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

by the elementary process in this particular. Pew persons are 
aware of the influence that loud speaking or vociferation has on 
the quality of the voice. We have already learned 3 it is one 
of the means for acquiring the orotund. It takes the voice 
apparently, from its meager mincing about the lips, and trans- 
fers lij at least in semblance, to the back of the mouth, or to 
the throat. It imparts a grave fulness to its quality ; and by 
creating a strength of organ, gives confidence to the speaker in 
his more forcible efforts ; and an unhesitating facility in all the 
moderate exertions of speech. 

Of Practice on Stress. Although the elementary exercise 
on force in a general sense, may not be required, I must urge 
its importance, in particular syllabic stress. There is a nicety 
in this matter, that will be definitely recognized, and conse- 
quently can become familiar, only through the deliberate prac- 
tice and unembarrassed observation, afforded by trials on the 
separate elements. 

It was said formerly, that radical stress is made with em- 
phatic strength only on the tonics ; still, an attempt to apply 
it to the subtonics is not to be entirely neglected. The full 
power of radical abruptness in the tonics is acquired, by opening 
the elements into utterance, with a sort of coughing explosion. 
The pupil cannot be too strongly urged to a careful practice, 
on this subject j that he may thereby acquire the elegant habit 
of giving abruptness, instantly and with moderated force. In 
this, its peculiar character as a mode of the voice is apparent, 
and its classification defensible : while it makes a clear and 
satisfactory impulse on the ear, without the hammering strokes 
of an uncultivated pronunciation. For this hammering is pro- 
duced not only by the repetition or current of a sharp and loud 
radical stress, but by that stress being carried into the concrete, 
if not through it, on accented syllables of moderate quantity. 

For the median stress or swell, no particular direction is 
required under this head. It is generally employed on the 
wave, and its practice may therefore be connected with exercise 
on pitch. 

The vanishing stress may be practiced, by assuming in speech 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 528 

something like the effort of hiccough, for the wider intervals 
of the scale ; and something like sobbing, for the minor third 
and semitone. We do not recommend practice on the minor 
third, with reference to its allowable use in speech ; but to 
render it so familiar to the ear, that it may be avoided as a 
fault. Elementary exercise on Compound stress, and the Loud 
Concrete, will give facility in the command of these forms of 
Force. Practice on Thorough stress, with a strict comparison 
of its effect, on long quantity, with the effect of the equable 
concrete, is here recommended, that the pupil may by his own 
knowledge, sense of propriety, and taste, rather than by any 
authority of mine, be guarded against this vocal sign of phlegma- 
tic rudeness. 

Of Practice on Pitch. The several scales used in speech, 
were described in the first section. The order of proximate 
intervals in the diatonic, and the skip of its wider transitions, 
must be learned from an instrument, or the voice. With a few 
days' attention to the effect of the various rising and falling 
movements, on the keys of a piano-forte, or in the voice of a 
master, a pupil who has the least musical ear, will be able to 
execute the same successions in his voice, and thus to recognize 
the concrete pitch, and change of radical, on elemental and 
syllabic utterance. 

After this first lesson, let every interval of pitch, both by 
concrete movement and by radical change, be practiced on every 
tonic and subtonic element. The semitone is easily recognized 
in a plaintive intonation : and when exercised on all the ele- 
ments will readily become obedient to the states of mind 
requiring its expression. 

The effect of the simple and uncolored interval of the second 
must be negatively described by saying 3 it is not the semitone, 
with its plaintive character ; nor the rising third, or fifth, or 
octave, also well known as the sign of interrogation ; nor the 
downward movements of positive declaration and command ; 
nor the wave, with its admiration, surprise, mockery and sneer. 
If then, in syllabic utterance, we produce none of these! effects, 
wc may conclude, we have passed through the simple second <>[* 



524 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

the diatonic melody. By practice on this interval, through all 
the tonics and subtonics, the pupil will acquire a command 
over the constituent of this plain intonation ; nor will he be in 
danger of destroying its appropriate character by the whine of 
the semitone, the sharp inquisitiveness of the fifth or octave, 
or with the more offensive affectation of the wider forms of the 
wave. 

The pupil will be able to recognize a downward interval, by 
familiarizing his ear to the effect of the last constituent of the 
triad of the cadence. This will teach him the character of the 
falling second ; and by studiously repeating the tonic and sub- 
tonic elements in this movement, he will have nearly as clear 
a perception of the peculiarity of the interval, as of the sounds 
of the elements themselves. When prepared with this down- 
ward vanish, he may contrast it with the rising second, and 
thus become familiar with the audible character of each. Upon 
knowing the second, the wider falling intervals will be perceived 
by continuing the downward progress, till the intonation assumes 
the expression of command ; the extent of the downward move- 
ment through a third, or fifth, or octave, being proportional 
to the less or greater degree of that expression. Let these 
wider intervals, be compared with those of a rising direction, 
and the difference between the intonation of a question, and a 
command, will thus be manifest. 

When the pupil has gone through the elements, on the simple 
rising and falling intervals, let him turn to their combination, 
in the wave. Here his practice must be governed by his per- 
ception of the simple intervals which variously compose its 
different kinds. The wave of the second is of great importance, 
in the grave and dignified character of the diatonic melody. I 
cannot by direct description, bring it before the ear ; but in 
giving prolonged quantity to indefinite syllables, if the effect 
of the upward or downward wider intervals is not recognized j 
nor the peculiar note of songj nor the marked impression of 
the wider waves j nor that of the plaintive semitone j it may be 
concluded, the voice is moving in the wave of the second. 

Of Practice on Melody. One difficult point regarding into- 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 525 

nation is the perception of the radical changes of the second, 
in the progression of the current melody. If the pupil has a 
musical ear, he may easily acquire the habit of varying the 
several phrases in the manner formerly proposed. Should he 
not have a nice perception of sound, nor ingenuity in experi- 
ment, he must learn the diatonic progression from the voice of 
a previously-instructed master. 

Melody is a continuous function ; practice under this head 
must therefore be made on successive syllables. The best 
method is to select a portion of discourse, to keep in mind the 
diatonic manner in which it should be read, and at the same 
time, to utter only the tonic element of each syllable ; and thus 
by a sort of vocal short-hand, or instant hackings of a short 
cough, to go through this dotted outline as it were, of the 
melody. In this case, the ear not being embarrassed by the 
subtonics, the difference between rise and fall in radical pitch, 
will be more apparent, and consequently the power of avoiding 
monotony, and of mingling all the phrases in an agreeable 
variety, more easily attained. 

. Of Practice on the Cadence. The cadence is an important 
part of the melody of speech ; and readers being therein liable 
to frequent and striking faults, the subject requires discrimina- 
tive attention. Here particularly the elementary practice is to 
be employed ; the pupil bearing in mind the different forms of 
intonation for terminating a sentence, and exercising hifl voice 
separately on one, two, or three elements or syllables, con- 
sidered as a close. 

By elementary practice on the various species of the cadence ; 
command over their intonation will be exercised, with a con- 
sciousness and precision, never yet within even the Dreaming 
purpose of any ancient or modern system of Imitative discipline : 
for many of its purposes were only dreams. After the proper 
time devoted to the plan here recommended, the pupil will be 
provided with ;in ample fund for every variety in his periods; 
nor will he then find himself at the end of his sentence, wjth a 
syllable thai seems to have got out-of -joint with its Intonation. 

Of Practice on the Tremor* The tremulous movement Bhould 



526 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

be practiced on individual elements. With a knowledge of its 
various forms, the pupil may correct himself in his task, and 
finally acquire the accuracy, so essential to this remarkable 
expression. And although the habit of laughing and crying 
does here furnish a wide field of practice, it is to be recollected 3 
we laugh and cry instinctively, upon our own delight and suffer- 
ing. When the tremulous expression is employed to affect an 
audience, governed in its taste j as it may come to pass here- 
after, by the knowledge and principles we are here unfolding -> 
it should be done, not only according to the dictates of Nature, 
and within the illuminated circle of her truth, but with that 
refinement, and finish of execution, which her incipient instinct 
may not have had the purpose to accomplish ; though she may 
be ready to acknowledge their entire consistency with her pros- 
pective and progressive laws. 

Of Practice on Quality of Voice. Quality is capable of im- 
provement ; and the practice in this case may be either on the 
elements, or on the current of discourse. Yet as quality is 
most perceptible on the tonic sound of a syllable, perhaps the 
elementary lesson is the best for instruction. In whatever way 
the improving exercise is conducted 3 by it, harshness of quality 
may be somewhat softened $ a husky voice may be brought 
nearer to pure vocalityj the piercing treble may be reduced in 
pitchy and the thin and meager voice indued with greater 
fulness and strength. 

There is, however, a misconception on this subject, which 
may be noticed here. 

The characteristic Qualities, or, as confounded with Pitch, 
and vaguely called, the distinguishing c tones,' of the voice, are 
said to be unlimited, and like the face, peculiar to each indi- 
vidual. We do not indeed often forget or confound the known 
voices of individuals, however numerous they may be ; a popular 
proof, that we all have an instinctive and discriminative ear, 
for the things of Speech, without having names for them. But 
the distinct recognition is here made upon combinations of the 
specific degrees, and forms of force, pitch, and time, rather 
than on the single mode of quality. Thus one speaker is char- 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 527 

acterized by a constant use of the vanishing stress ; another 
by that of the radical ; one employs the interval of a third in 
the current melody, instead of a second ; while some emplov a 
long, and others a short quantity on every emphatic word. By 
a varied permutation of these features, a countless number of 
different, yet distinguishable faces, is given to the body of 
speech. And here, as a comment on the prevalent idea, that 
speech with its ' occult qualities,' is too subtle, immaterial, or, 
to use the Platonic 'slang' of the nineteenth century, too 
' spiritual,' to be made a subject of physical science, or of art j 
let us remark, that all these faces, features, aye, and delicate 
expressions too, of speech are practically cognizable by common 
perception. 

There are as many varieties of Quality, as of any one mode 
of the voice j and more than of some ; the amount however, 
falls far short of the almost endless combinations of the various 
forms of the Modes with each other. 

We may learn that the Quality of a voice is not always its 
distinguishable mark 3 by attending to the prolonged note of 
song ; for this makes quality more obvious. In forming a 
judgment from a prolonged note, exclusive of any peculiarity 
of stress, time, or intonation, it is not easy to distinguish voices, 
which would widely differ when heard under the mingling modes 
of speech, through only a single sentence. Of the speaking 
voices of a thousand persons, each would be distinguishable, 
by its peculiar manner of using the various permuted forms of 
pitch, time, and stress. If the same voices were severally to 
be indicated by a single prolonged note of song, the differences 
in quality might be reduced to a few classes. There would be 
forte and piano voices heard among them, shrill and hoarse, 
clear, aspirated, harsh, full, meager, dull, and ringing: and to 
these a few others might be added. Yet even these would, in 
some cases, be distinguishable only by a cultivated car ; and 
of the whole thousand, above supposed, perhaps not more than 
twenty classes of vocal sound, as subjects of recognition could 
be found, to constitute twenty kinds of quality. 

Of the orotund as a kind of voice, we spoke in a former B6C- 



528 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

tion ; and there described the means by which the fulness, 
power, and grave quality of this voice may be attained. It 
may perhaps assist the reader in using the proper means for 
acquiring the orotund, to know, that the voice in this case, is 
apt to change into what we formerly called the basso-falsette ; 
thus producing that ' double-lung ' kind of speech, of mingled 
bass and treble. 

Of Practice in Rapidity of Speech. Extreme rapidity of 
speech may be employed for acquiring command over the voice. 
The difficulty, of making transitions from one position of the 
organs of articulation to another, requires an exertion which 
tends to increase their strength and activity ; and thus enables 
them to execute the usual time of speech, without hesitation. 
I would recommend the utmost possible precipitancy of utter- 
ance ; taking care not to outrun the complete articulation of 
every element ; and this makes it advisable to set the lesson on 
some discourse, long fixed in the memory, that no embarras- 
ment may arise from the distracting effort of recollection. 

There is not much advantage to be derived from elementary 
practice on Aspiration, the Emphatic vocule, and Guttural 
vibration. The exact and forcible execution of these functions, 
does not require the exclusive attention, directed by the rudi- 
mental system of practice ; nor is anything to be effected thereby, 
that may not perhaps, for all practical and tasteful purposes, 
be accomplished in the current of discourse. 



We have thus briefly enumerated the articulative, the thought- 
ive, and the expressive constituents of the whole assemblage of 
speech. The only question, here interesting is 3 whether we 
should aim to acquire a full power over these constituents, by 
exercising the voice on their combinations, in current dis- 
course, or by separate and repeated practice on their indi- 
vidual forms.* 

* Perhaps the analogy would be too remote, to draw an example of the ele- 
mentary and synthetic method of instruction, from the gradual process of 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IX ELOCUTION. 529 

It ifi needless to offer arguments in favor of an elementary- 
didactic system to those, who, from experience in acquiring 

infant speech. But I cannot, while the subject is thus before me, avoid a few 
remarks, on what appears to be the order of that process. 

Although we should reject every fictional date, and they are all fictional >, 
for the origin of language : and every supposition of one or of many parts of 
the earth as well as of the manner, in which it did begins still the succession in 
the instinctive efforts of present infant speech is freely open to investigation. 

In a note to our section on Time, there is a passing question j Whether the 
abrupt elements were not prompted by sudden instinctive impulses, at that 
almost inconceivable event, the first beginning of speech. Since the date of our 
fourth edition in eighteen hundred and fifty-five, I have read in the Introduc- 
tion to Mr. Charles Richardson's Etymological Dictionary, the clear exemplifi- 
cation of his idea of analytically tracing many of the full-formed words of culti- 
vated language, to roots of a primary meaning in the individual elements : and 
notwithstanding the philological Ethnologist, and the writers on the Mind 
have not had the curiosity or time, to learn how far our history of the voice, 
might assist their researches, I will still endeavor to draw their attention, by 
applying some of the principles of nature to the present fashionable inquiry 
into the origin and language of man. 

It is known, that in the full-established system of the vocal signs, the states 
of mind variously employ the modes of quality, force, time, abruptness and 
intonation ; and that the first audible efforts of infant-expression are purely 
vowel sounds, under the forms of cry, scream, and of fainter vocalities called 
humming and cooing; together with a varied time, force, and intonation of 
these sounds, and even of their sudden break into abruptness. These vowel 
signs, as well as we observe, denote the first perception of pleasure or pain or 
of physical wants. So far then, these individual elements have a meaning, and 
are thus the real and simple roots of language, in the signs of infant sensation; 
for we cannot give the then state of mind the name of thought or passion. 
The consonants next follow, in the progress of speech ; and still to found the 
origin of language in nature, there are certain instinctive muscular functions 
that prepare the vocal mechanism for the production of these elements. The 
early act of sucking strongly exercises the muscles that close and open the lips; 
and thus furnish the organic meaus, which with the accompaniment of vocality, 
or aspiration j already prepared by instinctive effort: produce in the former case, 
the elements B, M, and V, and in the latter, F, and P. In the same act of suck- 
ing, the application of the tongue to the palate, and to the upper and the lower 
gums, constitutes the mechanism, that with vocality, or with aspiration, seve- 
rally forms G, K, D, T, N, R, 77* -in, and 77»-en. 

The next instinctive-elemental and significant sign would perhaps be, the 
incipient tremor on the interval of the tone or second, or wider interval, for the 
expression of infantile satisfaction ; and sobbing, with the tremor on the semi- 
tone for distress. Coughing would early give a command over abrupti. 
prepare for the radical stress, and distinct articulation of perfect speech. We 



530 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

the sciences, have formed for themselves economical and effec- 
tive plans of study. Let all others be told $ that one, and per- 
haps the only reason why elocutionists have never employed 
such a system, is, that they have overlooked the analytic means 
of inquiry into the subject of vocal expression ; and have there- 
fore wanted both the knowledge and nomenclature for an ele- 
mentary method of instruction. There are too many proofs 
in science and art, of the success of this rudimental method, to 
allow us to suppose, the same means would not have been 
adopted in elocution, if they had been known to the master. 

Not to cite instances from those graver studies which pro- 
ceed by the synthetic steps of elementary principles ; and with 
no intention to shame the ' genius ' of an elocutionist and his 
grammar of imitation, let us go to the Ring, and see the 
Science of muscular attack and defence, an over-match for the 
best efforts of strength and passion, when undirected by gym- 
do not assume that single consonants are at first, mental signs ; nor afterwards, 
except in the expressive aspirations of s, and h; and as it would be stepping 
aside from the caution of philosophy to suppose, that in some infantile efforts 
they may be so, we leave this subject for those who think it deserves stricter 
investigation. The instinctive vowels with their intonations are the first signs of 
the pleasures, pains, and wants of the child: and observation teaches ^ they 
denote these perceptions, as certainly as they can be denoted by the full-formed 
words of conventional language. 

There is a further addition to primary speech, when the consonants are acci- 
dentally combined with vowels, into the syllabic impulse ; as in Ba, and Am, 
or reversely, Ab, and Ma. The sense of hearing then becomes observant : 
imitation follows, and monosyllabic language with its capacity for endless com- 
bination into words of varied extent begins. 

It may therefore seem, that by Mr. Richardson's observations, the ultimate 
roots of languages are the significant elements. Under this view, the roots of all 
languages must have a common origin ; thus displaying the unity of nature, not 
only in the prevalence of the same principles of articulation and of vocal expres- 
sion, in every age and nation, as we have after close analysis, represented it^ 
but in the origin of that articulation, and expression, in whatever part or parts 
of the earthy or in whatever age or ages it may once or oftener, have occurred. 
Should future observation confirm Mr. Richardson's view, and the few remarks 
we have added to it, it will be learned, that the five modes of the voice, which 
combine to make the vast variety of mature and expressive language ;$ are found 
in limited use, to constitute what on like principle we may call the incipient 
expression of infant wants, and pleasure or pain. 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 531 

nastic skill. The 'Fancy' have really made no slang-like or 
degrading application of the word. Science, as we usefully 
regard it, does no more than lay-down for art, those general 
principles, and efficacious rules which sagacity has drawn from 
observation and trial : and though it may not always ennoble 
the subject it touches, it does keep from it, that characteristic 
of brutality j the instinctive execution of what, in its causes 
and effects, is not understood by the agent. Yes, even the 
Pugilistic Art, low in purpose yet skilful as it is, has thus far, 
outstripped the philosophic efforts of Elocution ; and claimed for 
its method and precepts, the justifiable name of Science. And 
believe me, reader 3 the elementary training in its positions and 
motions, carries not- more superiority over the untaught arm, 
than the definite rules of elocution, founded on a knowledge 
of the constituents of the voice, will have over the best sponta- 
neous achievements of passion. 

Let me not be misunderstood on this point. Although I do 
not say, the method of instruction here proposed, can create 
the essential powers of a speaker j futurity will probably show, 
that some such system alone can direct, enlarge, and perfect 
them. ' Passion,' says a writer, ' knows more than art.' It 
may, indeed, in its own way, know more than the Old Elocu- 
tionary art ; but the Art of Science, so to speak, in its own 
way, like prudence in human affairs, sometimes knows better 
than passion. A display of the passions in speech, is not always 
addressed to persons under the sympathetic influence of those 
passions. When it is, or when at moments, the speaker can 
raise that sympathy, and passion becomes the selfish party- 
spirit of the mind, all is right, however wrong, that passion 
does. When passion is no longer the slave either of words or 
will, and we are called upon to make some proper application 
of its active idea, without its waywardness and partizan excesses, 
such comparisons arise between our own active ideas, en 
occasions of excitement, and what we perceive in others, that 
we are obliged to call upon observation and taste for some edu- 
cational rule, of Things 09 they Should be; to settle an uncer- 
tainty of opinion. Passion as we know it, is only the Enact- 



532 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

ing of a certain character of Ideas; and being with none, 
except fools and madmen, an Outlaw of the Mind, is still 
amenable to its purposed and directive, though excited authority. 
We need not go far, for the true history of what is called 
the Natural Manner in Speech, thus prompted by spontaneous 
and uneducated passion ; for passion is a wise instinct of 
nature, but is always perverted, if never improvingly taught. 
The everyday vulgar triumphs of popular eloquence, in which 
the demagogue, and the sectary, lead away an audience, eager to 
pursue the same selfish schemes of profit, or vanity, or fanatical 
delusion, are proof of what this oratorical sympathy is ; and 
what a wild and artful passion alone can sometimes do, without 
the aid of truth, or reason, or honesty or taste : for in these as 
in other popular relations, the more an orator influences the 
passions of others, the more those passions make a slave of 
him. 

We look for no more, from a well devised practical system of 
elocution, than we are every day receiving from established arts. 
All men speak and reason, in the common way, for these acts 
are as natural as passion ; but the arts of grammar, rhetoric 
and algebra, teach us to do these things in the best manner. 
In short, doing them in the best manner is signified by the name 
of these arts. 

The subject of elementary instruction may be otherwise 
regarded. The human muscles are, at the common call of 
exercise, obedient to the will. Now there is scarcely a boy of 
physical activity or enterprise, who on seeing a circus-rider, 
does not desire, in some way to imitate him ; to catch and keep 
the centre of gravity through the varieties of balance and mo- 
tion. Yet this will not prevent failure in his first attempts, 
however close the natural tie between his will and his muscles 
may be. For without trial, he knows imperfectly what is to be 
done ; and even with that knowledge, is unable, without long 
practice, to effect it. Thus there are many persons, with both 
thought and passion, who have a free command of the voice, on 
the common occasions of life, who yet utterly fail, when they 
attempt to imitate the varied power of the habitual speaker. 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 533 

When the voice is prepared by elementary practice, thoughts 
and passions find the confirmed and pliant means, ready to 
effect a satisfactory and elegant accomplishment of their pur- 
poses. 

The organs of speech are capable of a certain range of exer- 
tion ; and to fulfil all the demands of a finished elocution, they 
should be carried to the extent of that capability. Actors -with 
both strong and delicate perceptions, and who earnestly express 
them in speech, are always approximating toward this power 
in the voice ; and with no more than the assistance of a habitual 
exercise which enlarges their instinct, do in time, acquire a 
command over the forms and degrees of pitch, and stress, and 
time ; without the Actor himself being at all aware of the how, 
and the ivhat, of his vocal attainments, or having perhaps, one 
intelligent, or intelligible idea, of the ways, means, and effects 
of their application. The elementary method of instruction 
here proposed, being founded on the analysis of speech -» at once 
points out to the Actor ivhat is to be desired and attained ; and 
lioio every vocal purpose of thought, and passion should be 
fulfiled. 

It was not until long after the invention of the Bow for the 
gliding touch of chorded instruments, that its use was subjected 
to accurate attention. A few belonging to that class of man- 
kind who through precise and enlarged observation, with its 
steady aim, find out for themselves, the best way to effect their 
object, may have exhibited rare instances of skill in its manage- 
ment. As soon however as inquiry has made something like 
an analysis of their dexterity, the master was able to point out 
to the pupil the muscular sleight of wrist and arm which its 
handling requires ; their combined and successive motions ; 
together with that full perception of the will as it seems, pre- 
sent in the muscle, which insures undcviating steadiness in 
every sweep, and gives the power of a sort of conscious spasm 
for the purpose of a momentary touch. When these points 
were ascertained, instruction began to adopt the economy of 
elementary rules ; and confidence, rapidity, precision, smooth- 



534 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

ness, and variety of execution, became Common accomplish- 
ments in the art of Bowing. 

When an attempt is made to teach an art, without com- 
mencing with its simple elements, combinations of elements pass 
with the pupil for the elements themselves, and holding them 
to be almost infinite, he abandons his hopeless task. An edu- 
cation by the method we here recommend, reverses this disheart- 
ening duty. It reduces the seeming infinity to computable 
numbers; and I have supposed 3 one of the first comments on 
the foregoing history may refer to the unexpected simplicity of 
means, employed to produce the unbounded permutations of 
speech. Nay, this essay itself will fare better than other simi- 
lar efforts in science, if some of the perishing criticism of the 
day should not find good reason with itself, for overlooking the 
difficulty, of penetrating the mysterious thicket of speech, and 
of tracing its interwoven branches to their palpable roots, by 
being told how few and how accessible they are. 

In our proposed method of instruction, we have in view the 
strictest propriety, and the highest finish of the voice. An 
ordinary and even vicious use of Speech, as we all know, may 
serve for Buying and Selling, either in the common course of 
Trade, or in Election-Frauds, and Legislative Bribery. When 
the powers and beauties of the voice are the subject of reflec- 
tion and taste, it is necessary to employ the most comprehen- 
sive and precise means for its cultivation. It would be possi- 
ble, even without regard to the alphabet, to teach a savage to 
read, by directing him, word by word, to follow a master. 
And thus it has been proposed to teach elocution, by a similar 
process of imitative instruction. But the attentive reader must 
now know with me, and others may know among themselves 
hereafter, that the analysis of words into their alphabetic ele- 
ments, and the rudimental method of teaching instituted there- 
upon, do not give more facility, in the discriminations of the 
eye on a written page, than the means here proposed will afford 
to the student of elocution, who wishes to excel in all the use- 
ful and elegant purposes of speech. The master having now at 
command a knowledge of the vocal constituents, which already 



TIIE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 535 

foretell, and by futtfre application will furnish a precise and 
universal system of music in speech 3 let him adopt that ele- 
mentary method of instruction which has made another music 
familiar to the minds of children, and spread its refined and 
heart-felt pleasure throughout the civilized world. 

To begin this elementary, and only successful method of 
teaching the otherwise unteachable esthetic art of speech 3 let 
the master and his pupil, or his whole school, meet at first, 
without their little text-books ; the master having already the 
great Book of Nature by heart. Let the master then exemplify 
the five constituent modes of the voice ; the formation of the 
musical scale, with the explanation of its divisions and uses ; 
the four scales of speech ; the concrete and discrete pitch in 
all its forms ; the graceful gliding of the vanish, with the effect 
of the second and of other intervals. Let him make the pupil 
sensible of the difference of these intervals by separate and hy 
compared utterance ; of the peculiarities of a rising and of a 
falling movement ; of the waves ; of the diatonic, and the chro- 
matic melodies ; of the cadences ; of the stresses ; in short, 
making the lessons an exemplification of every constituent 
function of speech. Let the pupil practice all this when he 
retires ; and on returning, let it not be to hear his master read, 
and vainly try to imitate himj but to repeat his elementary 
task, through all the available modes, forms, and varieties of 
the voice. When he is completely familiar with these rudi- 
ments, then and not before, let him begin to read. 

Should high accomplishment in elocution be an object of 
ambition, the system of instruction offered in this section, will 
until a better method is proposed, furnish the easiest and short- 
est means for success. 

After all that has been said, the best contrived scheme will 
be of little avail, without the utmost zeal and perseverance on 
the part of the learner. It is an impressive saying 1>\ :m 
elegant genius of the Augustan age, who drew his maxim from 
the Greek Tragedy, and illustrated it by his own life and fame, 
that 'nothing is given to mortals without indefatigable labor ;' 



536 THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IN ELOCUTION. 

meaning j that works of surpassing merit, and supposed to pro- 
ceed from a peculiar endowment by Heaven, are in reality, the 
product of hard and unremitting industry. 

It is pitiable to witness the hopes and conceits of ambition, 
when unassisted by its required exertions. The art of reading- 
well is an accomplishment, that all desire to possess, many 
think they have already, and that a few set-about to acquire. 
These, believing their power is altogether in their < Genius,' 
are, after a few lessons from an Elocutionist, disappointed at 
not becoming themselves at once masters of the art ; and with 
the restless vanity of their belief, abandon the study, for some 
new subject of trial and failure. Such cases of infirmity result 
in part from the wavering character of the human Tribe ; 
but they chiefly arise from defects in the usual course of in- 
struction. Go to some, may we say all of our Colleges and 
Universities, and observe how the art of speaking, is not taught 
there. See a boy of but fifteen years, with no want of youthful 
diffidence, and not without a craving desire to learn j sent upon 
a Stage, pale and choking with apprehension ; being forced 
into an attempt to do that, without instruction, which he came 
purposely to learn; and furnishing amusement to his class- 
mates, by a pardonable awkwardness, that should be punished, 
in the person of his pretending but neglectful preceptor, with 
little less than scourging. Then visit a Conservatorio of music; 
observe there, the elementary outset, the orderly task, the 
masterly discipline, the unwearied superintendence, and the 
incessant toil to reach the utmost accomplishment in the Singing- 
Voice ; and afterwards do not be surprised that the pulpit, the 
senate, the bar, and the chair of medical professorship, are filled 
with such abominable drawlers, mouthers, mumblers, clutterers, 
squeakers, chanters, and mongers in monotony : nor that the 
schools of Singing are constantly sending abroad those great 
instances of vocal wonder, who triumph along the crowded 
resorts of the world ; who contribute to the halls of fashion 
and wealth, their most refined source of gratification ; who 
sometimes quell the pride of rank, by a momentary sensation 



THE MEANS OF INSTRUCTION IX ELOCUTION. 

of envy ; and who draw forth the admiration, and receive the 
crowning applause of the Prince and the Sage.* 

* It is remarkable of the Science of the Voice, that the successful cultivati q 
of the department of Song, through the profound and beautiful analysis of 
melody, and harmony, should never have extended the ambition of its inquiry 
and success, into the more important, and equally esthetic department of speech. 

Having, after a long and active search, collected quite a library of good, bad, 
and indifferent works on elocution ; and, with the exception of Mr. Steele, Mr. 
Odel, and Mr. Walker, finding them all, both ancient and modern, to be com- 
posed of the same common materials of the art, arranged and detailed with a 
varied ability: I had some curiosity to know the practical method of eminent 
Vccal Institutions. During my residence in Paris, through the winter of eighteen 
hundred and forty-five — six, I sought by every due effort, to obtain from direct, 
and personal observation, a knowledge of the instructive Course of Declamation 
employed in the Conservatorio. I learned however, through a friend of some 
influence in this matter, that by a general rule, admission could not be ob- 
tained. 

Upon information derived from a Vocalist, at that time under tuition, for his 
appearance in the Opera^ who described to me, the directive, and examplary 
means of the master, the imitative practice of the pupil, and the detailed rou- 
tine of the taskj I was led to conclude j they had no knowledge, out of the 
common way, on the construction, and intonative meaning, either of Declama- 
tion or Recitative; nor the least idea of a Philosophy of Speech, to throw the 
necessary light of explanation upon them: and that while the exclusion of 
visitors, might be no deprivation to the studious observer, the duties of the 
Institution would by this precaution, be saved from the vexatious intrusion of 
the tens of thousands idle, restless, and ennui'd Sojourners in the great Me- 
tropolis. 

That the French, like the rest of the world, have not the least idea of a 
system of the voice, founded on the ordination of nature, and denoting the 
different states of mind in thought and passion, must appear from their Ili.-tii- 
onic Elocution. If the Glory, Wisdom and taste of France, strangely con- 
centered, as it is, in Paris, should ever acknowledge the possibility of there 
being any imperfection in its state; and cease to think, it has already reached 
'the highest degree of civilization;' it will perhaps, perceive the peculiar and 
bombastic system of its intonation; and then attempt to correct it, by some 
other means, than that of the rule of its own exaggerated and habitual expres- 
sion. The English, phlegmatic as they are supposed to be, are prone to employ 
an over-proportion of vivid constituents in that current which should be a plain 
diatonic melody. But the French, far exceeding them in this use of the wider 
intervals and waves, have no diatonic melody at all, in their oratorical and 
dramatic speech. 

We have learned how rarely the plain and dignified forms of the MOOnd and 
its waves are heard under their proper use on the English stage ; and that, with- 

35 



538 RYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 

SECTION L. 

Of the Rythmus of Speech. 

Ik" the section on Time, some allusion was made to the subject 
of Rythmus. I there endeavored to show the circumstances 
under which stress and time, or as they are otherwise called, 
accent and quantity, produce by their alternations the agreeable 

out an adjusted intermingling of the expressive and the inexpressive constituents 
of speech, no Actor can attain tragic distinction, or long maintain it, with an 
audience of educated perception and taste. In this improper employment of 
wider intervals and waves, the English, from the construction of their Language, 
have less apology than the French, for the excesses of their intonation. It is 
well known, that the accentual character of the former consists in a forcible 
stress on certain syllables, with a feeble stress on others ; the latter being more 
numerous ; and the difference in degree, of the stresses being so fixed and re- 
markable, as to furnish a rythmus of accent or quantity for the construction of 
its Blank-verse : while it serves the further purpose of relieving the monotony 
of its rhyme, by the variety of a strong and attractive accent, successively fall- 
ing on a different syllabic sound, and by the cesural pause, in the course of 
the line. 

With the French language the case is different. It has indeed a perceptible 
variation, in the force of its accents, and the duration of its quantities ; but not 
sufficiently marked, nor of such a systematic character, as to make an available 
prosodial meter. The French Epic and Dramatic lines, for they cannot be called 
prosodial measures, properly consist each of twelve syllables ; though they have 
sometimes ten or eleven. Among them is occasionally found, a succession of 
accent and quantity resembling the various structures of English verse. There 
is an example of our anapestic measure, in the first Canto and second line of 
Voltaire's Henriade, 

Et par droit de conquete et par droit de naissance. 

Allowing for the manner of the French, in prolonging their syllables, many 
like correspondencies to the usual English measures may be gathered from what 
they call their heroic rhyme. 

But all such cases are accidental in French versification, and do not accord 
with the general character of its irregular succession : a succession, shocking 
to the English ear, and utterly without a flowing rythmus either as poetry or 
prose. 



RYTITMUS OF SPEECH. 

impressions of verse. I now offer a more formal account of this 
matter, with the design to speak of the Rythmus of prow ; ami 
to notice in as few words as possible, the original and practical 

We pronounce the word accommodation with a strong accent on the second 
and fourth syllables, and a contrasted feeble one, on the third and fifth : whereas 
the French, with whom it has six syllables, as ac-com-moda-ci-on, make but a 
slight variation in the degree of stress among them. Hence, if the word be 
moderately caricatured by a full stress on every syllable, it will resemble French 
pronunciation. And in general, to mimic that pronunciation, in English words, 
it is only necessary to substitute de, for th ; to give, to the English ear at least, 
an affected prolongation to certain syllables, and a like degree of accent on all. 
It may thus be perceived that the French language, in its accent and quantity, 
does not admit of Blank-verse ; as no proper prosodial meter can be given to 
its lines. Under this condition, instead of altogether rejecting the vain attempt 
at measure, and employing plain but dignified prose, in their Epic and Dra- 
matic composition ; they endeavor to supply the want of a regular temporal and 
accentual rythmus, by the poor regularity of an equal number of syllables in 
each of their lines, and by terminating them with rhyme: and on this ground 
alone to raise the verbal structure of their poetry. 

Now I would suggest, as a subject of future inquiry among the French, who : 
whenever they look at themselves, by the light of an analytic speech, will be 
the best judges in the case^ whether this peculiar construction led to their use 
of the florid and exaggerated form of their Histrionic intonation : and whether, 
in the desire to withdraw the ear from the palling effect of the equal couut of 
syllables ; and to lessen the monotony of the rhymes, they did not purposely 
endeavor to produce, throughout the current, and particularly at the close of 
proximate lines, a contrast of striking intervals and waves; such as that of a 
rising interval, or indirect wave, at the end of one line, and a reverse movement 
on the next ; without those intonations having the least regard to a natural 
propriety of expression. For we must remember, that the monotony of French 
rhyme, which under English law is not always canonical, and of its equal 
number of syllables, is not relievable by the attractive rythmus, of the English 
manner of accentual or temporal measure. And finally, whether by this attempt 
to avoid monotony, they did not substitute, that equally striking and more 
erroneous monotony, which is always produced by impressive intervals im- 
properly applied. 

Such is the view, which our 'Philosophy' of speech offers of the universal 
prevalence of the remarkable intonation in French Tragedy: a phi! 
drawn from the ordination of nature In the human voice, and that should 
make no allowance for national self-deception, and its self-solacing vanity. Be 
this view admissible or not, my observation ventures to affirm thifl ex 
use of florid intervals, in all the French Tragedians I have heard, Inoluding 
an Actress of the day, whom the Critics of Paris, with unbounded eu! 
without the least vocal discrimination, present to the world as the | 



540 RYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 

system of Mr. Steele, on the subject of accentuation and pause : 
this being among the first results, in modern times, of an in- 
quiry into the philosophy of spoken language. 

Speech would not be convenient for the interchange of thought 
and passion, if every syllable of every word were successively 
accented. For by this uniform accentuation, it would want that 
vocal light and shade, and that pronounced relief, required for 
a distinct picture of ideas ; words, and consequently ideas, 
would not be easily distinguished from each other ; and speech 
would be inconveniently slow. Whether this slowness would 
result from the hiatus, in passing from one syllable to another, 
each with a full radical upon it, we need not here inquire. It 
is enough to know, that if the following, or any other sentence 
be read with every syllable accented, the delay will be una- 
voidable. 

The Right of suf-frage in a Re-pub-lic, will, through the suc-ces-sive 
Oli-gar-chy of weak and am-bi-tious Knaves, al-ways end in the 
Wrongs of the Peo-ple. 

Now, although this political axiom, should be deliberately 
read as well as closely laid to heart ; still, with an impressive 
accent on every syllable, the pronunciation of this eternal truth 
would far exceed in time, even what its solemn utterance de- 
serves.* Thus, to the alternation of strong and weak accent, 

of Tragic Art. I say nothing here, of gesture and other accompaniments of 
this vivid and false intonation: nor of Comedy and Vaudeville, which though 
employing a somewhat exaggerated form of colloquial speech are altogether 
most admirable. 

Could I have had the opportunity of personally observing the method of 
teaching Declamation in the Conservatorio, I might have spoken with more 
fulness, and accuracy on this subject. 

* Let us take another example, to be read with an accent on every syllable. 

The dif-fer-ence be-tween the two great An-tag-o-nists a-mong na- 
tions, is this: In a Des-pot-ism, the gov-ern-ment preys up-on the 
peo-ple. In a De-moc-ra-cy, the peo-ple prey up-on the gov-ern-ment. 
The life-blood is drawn a-like by each. In one case by the Ea-gle; in 
the oth-er by the Rats. 



RYTHMU8 OF SPEECn. 541 

with the variations of long and short quantity, is ascribable 
much of the power and beauty of speech. 

This being the character of the accentual function, Mr. Steele, 
by an original view of the relations between accent, quantity, 
and pause, made a division of the line of speech, analag 
that of the Bars of musical notation. These may be called 
Accentual Sections. "We will attempt to explain part of the 
system of Mr. Steele, by the following sentence : using italics 
in place of his symbol for the accented syllable ; and numbering 
the sections, merely for reference. 



In the | sec ond [ cent u-ry | ] of the [ thrift ian | e ra | 

7 S 9 10 11 U 

~] the | em pire of | Rome | ] com-pre | hend ed the \fair est | 

13 14 15 16 17 18 

part of the | earth ] | "] and the [ most ] | civ i-lized | por tion | 

10 20 

] of man | kind. \ 

Mr. Steele first assumes the time of the several bars to be 
equal, like that of the bars in music ; the term bar, meaning, 
not the vertical lines, but the space between them. lie D 

lividea ;t sentence into bars, each of equal time; that time 

g, either altogether of verbal sound, or of a verbal 

Bound and of a silent time or pause. Supposing then a bar, or 

accentual section, to contain, in its verbal time, one, and n 

more than one, accented syllable, or heavy Poize, as lie calls 

and one or more unaccented, which he calls the light Po 
the beginning of the bar is always occupied by the heavy ac- 
cent, and the end by the light, or in their absence, by a respec- 
tively equivalent silent time or pause. In the first bar of the 

cample, there is no heavy accent, for the sentei: 
with two light syllables, but its time is indicated by the symbol 
of a Bilent pause: while the two light are set at the end of the 
accentual Bection. The woi . in the next bar, hi 

heavy syllable followed by a light one, and thus makes a full 
and audible time. In the third bar, the word a nt\ 
heavy, followed by two light syllables. The fourth has the 
tte time in syllable and pause, as the first. The fifth and 



542 KYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 

sixth are of the same construction as the second. The seventh 
has one light accent, and a pause in place of the heavy. The 
eighth is like the third. The ninth, and twentieth, have each 
one heavy accent ; for each syllable being a prolongable quan- 
tity, the time may be extended to an equality with that of the 
other bars. The fourteenth and the sixteenth has each, like 
the last-named, -a heavy ; but wanting the light, its time is sup- 
plied by a pause : since the short quantity of these words, does 
not allow their prolongation to the full time of a bar. The 
other bars are only respectively, repetitions of those already 
described. If we suppose so many syllables within a bar, as to 
require an improper precipitancy of utterance, in order to make 
the time of the sections equal, it becomes necessary to add a 
new bar, for the redundant light syllables, and to set them at 
the end of the new bar, and the symbol of a pause, at the 
beginning, in place of the heavy or accented syllable. Thus 
in the example, we might put, | century of the | into one sec- 
tion ; but when the sentence is read deliberately, this section is 
too long. It is better ordered in the example, by a subdivision, 
and by a pause in the place of an accented syllable. With 
this general explanation, the reader is referred to Mr. Steele's 
work, for a more particular account of the system. Perhaps I 
have not properly marked the bars of this sentence. My pur- 
pose however, being only to illustrate 3 others may with an ear 
of taste, improve the reading for themselves. Yet it is worthy 
of remark, that if this sentence is read without its linear divi- 
sions 3 the voice of a good reader is disposed to make its pauses 
in those very places, and of that duration, visibly indicated by 
the vertical lines, placed before the accented syllable 3 and by 
the symbols of pauses, both in the light and heavy parts of the 
bar. Thus showing the instinct of the voice ; with the powers 
of analysis, and the originality of the author. 

It will perhaps be asked here 3 What is the meaning of 
these divisions ? And what useful purpose they serve in in- 
struction ? 

All works on elocution before the time of Mr. Steele, recom- 
mend the accurate accentuation of words, and a strict attention to 



BYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 548 

their separation at the proper places for pausing. And although 
Mr. Sheridan has given particular cases of notation for rhetori- 
cal emphasis, and for pause, he has proposed no hroad rule, to 
direct a pupil on these points, as Mr. Steele has done, in his 
simple divisions by bars placed before the heavy accent. The 
importance of the subject in our early schools, may be learned 
from the manner in which children begin to read ; for their 
hesitating utterance, and their close attention to the single 
word, lead them to lay an equal stress on every syllable, or at 
least on every word. This habit continues a long time after the 
eye has acquired a facility in following up discourse ; and in 
some cases infects pronunciation throughout subsequent life : 
as it is not till the tongue goes tripping, or rather halting, with 
its firm and its tender step on words, that the ear becomes sen- 
sible of the use and beauty of accent. Mr. Steele's notation 
having a symbol for the degrees of stress, here marked by an 
italic syllable, presents a visible analogy to the light and heavy 
impression, and furnishes a child with the picture of his lesson 
on accent, and with a monitor to his ear. I do not sayj this 
object would not be attained in a degree, by employing the 
common mark of stress on all accented syllables : yet even this 
is never done; and if it were, it would not have the generality 
of a precept, nor be as definite for elementary instruction, as 
the conspicuous division by bars ; nor would it include the indi- 
cation of pause, together with other points embraced by 31 r. 
Steele's system. 

One of the objects of a scientific institute is, to point out 
what is necessary in an art, even though it should not be able 
to direct the exact manner of executing it ; and perhaps no one 
who has looked into Mr. Steele's system of notation will hesi- 
tate to acknowledge 3 it has set the subjects of accentuation and 
pause in an entirely new light before him. 

This notation is founded on a knowledge of the conventional 
accents of English words, and though it would not indeed 
inform a child what syllables are to be accented or emphatic; 
and not always, where the pauses are to be place 1 j it will ena- 
ble a master, who knows how to order all these things in speech, 



544: RYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 

to furnish his scholar with a visible illustration of his task, and 
a rule for subsequent use. If a boy is taught by this method, 
he acquires a habit of attention to the subjects of accentuation 
and pause, that may be readily applied, without the notation, 
in ordinary discourse. 

I have gladly embraced an opportunity to notice the labors 
of Mr. Steele j who was among the first to shriek-out at the 
incubus of ancient prosody, which had crouched so close on the 
bosom of his own, and of every modern language. His work is 
observative, though neither full nor systematic ; and his con- 
tradistinction of what he calls Poize, from the effect of quantity 
and stress, appears to me to be altogether notional and cloudy. 
Notwithstanding his philosophic turn for really hearing speech, 
he seems, on the subject of his light and heavy Poize, to have 
fallen into an abstraction, almost within the doctrine of ' Occult 
causes.' Still, I have taken this short and perhaps unsatisfac- 
tory view of a part of his essay, as prefatory to the few follow- 
ing remarks on the subject of rythmus.* 

The Eythmus of language is produced by a certain order of 
accent, quantity, and pause. Or in other words, a certain suc- 
cession of syllables, having different degrees of stress, or of 
quantity ; and this succession being divided into portions by 
pauses, constitutes the agreeable impression of the current of 
speech, called Rythmus. There are however, perceptible rela- 
tions, between the various sounds of the elements which have, 
in prose, a faint and irregular resemblance to rhyme; and 
which when joined with rythmus, serves to extend and to 
highten its esthetic character. These relations open a new 
field of rhetorical inquiry, with enlarged and varied views of 
the ways and means of a delicate kind of comparison of the 
similarity of some elemental sounds, and of the contrast in the 
difference of others ; which cannot have escaped the notice of a 
cultivated ear ; and which may have been instinctively observed, 

* Mr. Steele first published his views, under the title cited in the introduction 
to this essay. A few years afterwards he gave a second edition of his work, 
with the title of 'Prosodia Rationalist This last has very little addition to the 
former print. 



RYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 545 

and practiced, in Greek and Roman Elocution, yet never de- 
scribed and reduced to system. And though I may not be here 
understood by every reader ; there are some perhaps, who may 
follow-up this hint on the subject of those graceful accompani- 
ments of rythmus, which I am not at this time prepared to 
pursue. 

There are two methods of applying the alternate force and 
remission of stress, and the variations of quantity, in the con- 
struction of rythmus. One proceeds by a regular repetition of 
the same order of impressions as in Versification. The other, 
as in Prose, has no formal arrangement of its strong and weak, 
or its long and short syllables. The system of the order of 
syllables in verse constitutes what is called Prosody. This 
subject having been ably treated by authors, and being beyond 
the design of this essay, we here pass it by, with the remark, 
that if English prosodists would listen to their own language, 
when they undertake to regulate it, and would scrutinize what 
the older grammarians have said upon the subject of Timej 
which, there are some reasons for believing, they themselves) 
did not thoroughly understand j their science would be more 
intelligible, and their rules of practice more useful to the 
student. 

Though the broad distinction between prose and verse con- 
sists in the more irregular sequence of accent and quantity in 
the former : still they seem to compromise their differences to 
a certain degree, in their respective attempts at excellence. 
For the best poetic rythmus is that which admits occasional, 
and well-ordered deviations from the current of accentuation ; 
these deviations however, not continuing long enough to destroy 
the general character of regularity ; the order returning before 
the ear has forgotten its previous impression. Prose, on the 
Other hand, is constantly showing the beginning of a regular 
rythmus: but before any series of accent or quantity has time 
to impress the ear with its method, the cross-purpose of a new 
succession destroys the order of incipient versification. 

The sources of variety, beauty, ami force, in rythmus may 
be learned from the following general view of its construction* 



546 RYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 

In ordinary pronunciation there may be several successive 
monosyllabic-words marked by the abrupt accent -j the abrupt- 
ness necessarily producing a momentary pause between them : 
or there may be an accented syllable followed by one or more, 
and not exceeding five unaccented ; the average proportion 
being about one accented syllable to two or three unaccented. 
Hence it appears that the divisions, included between the verti- 
cal lines of Mr. Steele's notation, called here, accentual sec- 
tions, may consist of from one to five syllables, and with 
peculiar arrangement, and care in pronunciation, perhaps of 
six. Consequently, if a rythmus were formed on the function 
of accent alone, a series of these differently constituted sec- 
tions, would furnish the ground-work for considerable variety. 
Thus in the above example, the sections consist of from one to 
five syllables, for the third and fourth may be thrown together 
by omitting the bar and the pause, without at all obscuring 
the sense ; and these sections being arranged in varied suc- 
cession, is one of the causes of the agreeable rythmus of that 
sentence. 

Perhaps the reader will now admit that the ear is as strongly 
attracted by quantity as by stress. When, therefore, these two 
functions are combined, the means of variety are multiplied. 
In the following sentence, slightly altered from Gibbon, I have 
marked in italics those syllables which make an impression 
by their quantity, and thus add dignity to the varied accentual 
rythmus. 

The masters of the fairest and most wealthy climates of the globe, turrCd 
with contempt from gloomy hills, assaiVd by the wintery tempest, from lakes 
coneeaVd in mist, and from cold and lonely heaths, over which the deer of the 
forest were chased by a troop of naked barbarians. 

Besides the variety and impressiveness thus arising from 
stress and quantity, the rythmic effect may be further diver- 
sified by including one or more accentual sections within the 
boundary of pauses. If the useful economy of the term, may 
be allowed, let us call the portions of discourse so formed, 
Pausal sections. They may consist of a single word ; while the 



RTTHMUS OF SPEECH. 

structure of style, and ease of utterance, rarely admit of their 
containing more than twenty syllables. In the following exam- 
ple the pausal sections are included between the upright lines, 
that the order and variety of the succession may be surveyed 
by the eye. The lines designate only the place of the pause 
in clear and impressive reading, without denoting its several 
durations. 

It is gone | that sensibility of principle | that chastity of honor | -which 
felt a stain | like a wound | -which inspired courage | whilst it mitigated 
ferocity | which ennobled whatever it touched | and under which | vice 
itself | lost | half its evil | by losing all its grossness. | * 

The agreeable effect of variety in the pausal sections will 
perhaps be more conspicuous, by contrasting it with the mo- 
notony of the antithetic style. The following sentence exhibits, 
not the art, but the artifice of rhetorical construction. 

When I took the first survey of my undertaking | I found our speech | 
copious | without order | and energetic | without rules | wherever I 
turned my view | there was perplexity | to be disentangled | and con- 
fusion to be regulated | choice was to be made | out of boundless variety | 
without any established principle of selection | adulterations were to be 
detected | without any settled test of purity | and modes of expression | to 
be rejected or received | without the suffrages of any writers of classical 
reputation | or acknowledged authority. | 

Such measured divisions used occasionally may give variety 
to discourse; but as a characteristic of style, they become 
tiresome to the ear j and aiming to be forcible merely by verbal 
contrasts, often weaken the more important force of thought. 
There seems too, to be a want of dignity in this kind of rytli- 
mUfl : and those who affect it, scarcely perceive how nearly 
they approach to the principle of the ludicrous : for when its 
features are slightly surcharged by caricature, it really becomes 

* The manner in which lost, here forms by itself, a pausal section, is 
exemplified in Mr. Steele's method of notation : | Vice it | self ] | lost "| | 
half its | e vil. | A good reader would pronounco this clause, with e 
on lost, and a pause before and alter it: thus according with Mr. 5 
principles of Accentual division. 



548 RYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 

so. The principle is that of a resemblance in sound, with a 
difference in sense. The similarity in the number of words, 
together with the like places of their accents, and the equal 
count of syllables, under which it has sometimes been the 
fashion, to set-forth the strongest antithesis in thought or 
passion, has not exactly the contrasted imagery of a pun, but 
it reminds me of it. 

The monotonous effect of a series of similar pausal sections, is 
conspicuous in'the following example from the poems of Ossian. 
It is however, fair to remark, that as the extract has only two 
trisyllabic words, and not one polysyllable, this- peculiarity 
must be taken into account, with the other defects of its com- 
position. 

And is the son of Semo fallen ? | mournful are Tula's walls. | Sorrow dwells 
at Dunscai. | Thy spouse is left alone in her youth. | The son of thy love is 
alone ! | He shall come to Bragela, | and ask why she weeps ? | He shall 
lift his eyes to the wall, j and see his father's sword. | Whose sword is that ? 
| he will say. | The soul of his mother is sad. | Who is that, | like the hart 
of the desert, | in the murmur of his course ? | His eyes look wildly round | 
in search of his friend. | Conal | son of Colgar | where hast thou been | 
when the mighty fell ? [ Did the seas of Cogorma roll round thee ? | Was the 
wind of the south in thy sails ? | The mighty have fallen in battle, | and thou 
wast not there. | Let none tell it in Selma, | nor in Morven's woody land, j 
Fingal will be sad, J and the sons of the desert | mourn. 

The pausal sections are nearly all of equal length, and this 
cause, together with the frequent occurrence of the cadence, 
produces the wearisome character of its very common language, 
for it does not deserve the name of rythmus. Doctor Johnson 
once said, there were many men, and women, and children in 
Britain, who could write such poems as those ascribed to Ossian. 
I have too many agreeable and grateful recollections of Scot- 
land, to quarrel with her partiality, if she has any, on this 
point : but surely, there is not a Roscius who can read them. 
We have indeed a vast fund for variety, in the constituents of 
speech ; but we may doubt their sufficiency to meet the demands 
of this composition, without transgressing the rules of a just 
and expressive intonation. In short the passage, like many 



RYTHMUS OF SPEECH. 

others by better poets, cannot be read with satisfaction, before 
the judgment of a discerning ear. 

Let us compare the preceding extract, with the first few lines 
of Burke's episode on the Queen of France; which in elegance, 
variety, and hnpressiveness of rythmus, and exclusive of some 
hyperbole, and rhetorical ostentation, is not surpassed in the 
English language. 

That both the accentual and the pausal sections may be gra- 
phically made, they are here presented under Mr. Steele's 
notation, omitting the symbols for the light and heavy accent. 

7 It is | now | sixteen or | seventeen | years | 7 since I | saw the queen 
of | France, 7 | then the | Dauphiness, | 7 at Ver | sailles: | 7 7 | 7 and 

| surely | never | lighted on this | orb, | 7 which she | hardly | seemed 
to | touch, 7 | 7 a | more de | lightful | vision. | 7 7 | 7 7 | 7 I | saw 
her | just a | bove the ho | rizon, | 7 7 | decorating and | cheering | 
7 the | elevated | sphere j 7 she | just be | gan to | move in: | 7 7 | 
glittering | 7 like the | morning | star ; | 7 7 | full of | life, 7 | 7 and 

| splendor, | 7 and | joy. | 
Oh! | what a | revo | lution ! | 7 7 | 7 and | what a | heart 7 | 
must I | have, | 7 to con | template | 7 with | out e | motion, | that 
7 | 7 ele | vation | 7 and | that 7 | fall. | 

The agreeable effect of this rythmus may be traced to the 
following causes. 

First. The alphabetic elements are varied throughout : and 
except the similarity of sound in teen and Queen, and in the 
words lighted and delightful, cheering and sphere, they do not 
press upon each other. 

Second. The words have from one to four syllables; and 
these are finely alternated with each other. The accentual 
sections vary from one to five syllables in extent. 

Third. The Pausal sections consist of from two syllables to 
ten ; and their different lengths arc intermingled in succession. 

Fourth. The effect is still further varied, by an occasional 
coincidence of the temporal accent with that of Stress: and the 
dignity and force of the phraseology is hightened, by the occur- 
rence of these long syllabic quantities, at the several | 
as in the words; //ears, Xersailles, orb, horizon, 9\ 
star, joy, and fall. 



550 RTTHMUS OF SPEECH. 

F if tli. The order of the rytlimus lias just enough regularity 
to produce the smooth effect of verse, without allowing the 
reader to anticipate a systematic prosodial-measure. 

The only exception to be made to the commendation of this 
extract, is produced by the consecutive accents at its termina- 
tion. A cadence, with its last two syllables strongly accented, 
if not designed for some extraordinary case of expression, or 
for variety in a series of short sentences, or if its harshness 
is not modified by some long-drawn intonation on an indefinite 
quantity, is always, to me at least, both awkward and unman- 
ageable. 

Dionysius of Halicarnasus, in a summary of the constituents 
of an elegant Elocution, quoted in a note to our seventh sec- 
tion, describes Rythmus, as supporting or ' sustaining the voice ;' 
and the metaphor is just. For a well-marked arrangement of 
the varying stress and quantity of syllables, does sustain the 
voice, by keeping it from that careless staggering of speech, if 
I may so call it, and from that running of words against each 
other, which by crossing, and arresting the easy step of lan^ 
guage, confuses and thwarts the expectation of both the ear 
and the mind. The Ancients, with whom Writing was an Es- 
thetic Art, considered j that without rythmus, there could be no 
grace and dignity of style, whether in its lighter or its graver 
construction : and hence, at the earliest period, Poetry in em- 
bodying the mental perceptions of beauty and of grandeur, 
assumed to itself a corresponding expression, on the flowing and 
graceful measure of Verse. All this rare work however, was 
done by those, who if they did not, from the patience and 
thought with which they wrote, always beg their bread, did 
very often little more than earn it. Too many, who now use 
the hasty and profitable tongue and pen, have not time to 
measure for the ear and intellect, what they manufacture for 
sale. The regular order of Metre, that can be counted on the 
fingers, may for common purposes, seem to require but little 
instruction. The Rythmus of Prose, must be studied by the 
rules of an energetic variety, as the Ancients studied it. It is 
therefore, at present, neglected : And we are not without Cri- 



RYTHMUS OF SPEECII. 551 

tics, of such indolent or untunable ear, as to imagine; we ought 
to write, even in the brief and simple words of scientific descrip- 
tion, with the disjointed plainness of common speech ; and that 
to satisfy a cultivated taste and reflection, by the varied accen- 
tual forces of a flowing rythmus, is to be pedantic, and pom- 
pous : as the old Elocutionists say, that to read by the princi- 
ples and rules of analytic knowledge, is to be Theatric, affected, 
and formal. 

The preceding examples of rythmus illustrate its structure 
and effects in prose composition of elevated character. But 
there is no saying to what inferior level of popular idiom, lan- 
guage may descend with dignified safety, when supported by 
the confident wings of a smooth, gliding, and varied rythmus j 
and the upholding energy of thought and passion. 

From the pen of a person of fine rythmic perception, even a 
letter of business, with its enumeration of particulars, may flow 
with graceful variety, and terminate with decisive satisfaction 
to the ear ; for the Greek idea 3 of rythmus sustaining the voice 
in discourse, applies not more to maintaining a rhetorical dig- 
nity, than to preserving common language from a loose and 
unmeasured rudeness. 

It is unnecessary to go into a further detail on the subject of 
rythmus. Much might be said in illustration of its powers and 
beauties, as existing both in the current of discourse and in the 
conspicuous place of the pause. But we leave this to the Rhe- 
toricians. 



552 FAULTS OF HEADERS. 

SECTION LI. 

Of the Faults of Readers. 

It is a prevailing opinion, that persons who speak their own 
states of mind, in social intercourse, always speak properly ; 
and that transferring this i natural manner ' as it is called, to 
formal reading, must insure this required natural-propriety. 

This idea has arisen from ignorance of the functions which 
constitute the beauties and deformities of speech. Without a 
knowledge of causes and effects, on these points, teachers have 
been obliged to refer to the spontaneous efforts of the voice, as 
the only assistant means of instruction. Setting aside here, 
what we might insist on, that no one should pretend to say, 
what the right or natural manner is, before he knows the prin- 
ciples that make it so ; we will admit that the natural manner, 
or any body's manner, or rather no manner at all, from our 
being accustomed to it, and having, it may be, a fellow-feeling 
with its faults, is less exceptionable than the first attempts of 
the pupil in reading ; still the faults of ordinary conversation 
are similar to those of reading, though they are less apparent. 
Perhaps the common opinion is grounded on a belief, that a 
just execution must necessarily follow a full perception of the 
thought, and passion of discourse ; for these are supposed to 
accompany colloquial speech. No one indeed can read cor- 
rectly or with elegance, if he does not both understand and 
6 feel,' as it is called, what he utters; but these are not exclu- 
sively the means of success. 

There must be knowledge, derived from peeping behind the 
curtain of actual vocal deformity still hanging before the just 
and beautiful laws of speech ; and there must be an organic 
faculty, well prepared in the school of those laws, for the repre- 
sentation of thought and passion. Were it certain 3 this pre- 
tended natural manner truly represents the proper system of 



FAULTS OF READERS. 553 

vocal expression, we would no more require an art of elocution, 
than an Art of Breathing : and the whole world, in Heading 
and Speaking, as in the act of respiration, would always accom- 
plish its purposes, with a like instinctive perfection. Yet far 
from uniformity, there are wide and innumerable differences, in 
what now with individuals and schools, pass for the proprieties, 
as well as in what are the acknowledged faults of speech. The 
Elocutionist's natural manner is not therefore, the original 
ordination of the voice. It would seem, that in the early and 
unknown history of progressive man, he must, from the per- 
versity attendant on his ignorance, have learned to think, 
speak, Act, Govern, and to be Governed viciously, before he had 
learned to think, speak, act, govern, and to be governed wisely 
and well. Man's whole executive purposes are directed by his 
thoughts and passions j the same agents that direct his speech : 
and, far as history, and well grounded conclusions inform us, 
the just designs of nature, in his moral, his political, and his 
vocal condition, were found to be already crossed, or perverted, 
when he first began to look into her laws, and to turn an eye of 
philosophic inquiry and comparison, on himself. 

The self-prompted efforts of speech, do indeed, exhibit in 
some instances, proprieties of emphasis and intonation ; but 
these proprieties, like every purposed act without its rule, being 
but the occasional result of a narrow design, cannot have a 
generality necessary for a directive system of elocution ; and 
will be very far from satisfactory to the ear of a refined and 
educated taste. 

There may likewise be a wide difference, between the capa- 
bility of a voice in its colloquial use, and of the same voice 
when exerted in a formal attempt to read. Mr. Rice, in his 
4 Introduction to the Art of Heading,' refers to persons, who 
had been known to speak with great energy and propriety, aa 
it was presumed, those very w T ords, which, being taken down 
and shown to them in writing or print, they were able, only 
after repeated endeavors, to pronounce in the precise Mom-' 
and manner in which they had previously uttered them. Sup- 
posing they did speak with propriety, which the art. has jteTQf 



554 FAULTS OF READERS. 

yet furnished the proper means for knowing -» there seems, in 
these cases, to have been no want of a thoughtive and passion- 
ative state of mind, nor of flexibility in the voice ; and they 
must have been among those exceptions, in which the natural 
laws of expression prevail. But when discourse, denoting either 
of these states, is read, even by its author, the occupation of 
the eye distracts his attention from his state of mind 3 or per- 
mits it to be fully perceived, only when directed to a single 
point. If the meaning is to be gathered from several words, 
or a whole sentence, the necessary forerunning and retrospec- 
tion of the eye, render the proper management of the voice im- 
practicable to those who have not, by long exercise in the art 
of reading, acquired a facility in catching the thought and pas- 
sion of discourse, and an almost involuntary habit of associating 
with them, the proper form of vocal expression. If this is true 
of one who reads what he has before spoken well 3 more remark- 
ably must it apply, in reading without preparation the dis- 
course of another. 

Whatever may be the cause of the difficulty of reading-well 3 
faults of all degrees and kinds do prevail in the art. Having 
therefore prepared the way for a history of these faults, by 
describing what appears to be a precise and elegant use of the 
constituents of speech, I shall endeavor to point out the most 
common deviations from the principles, on which I have pre- 
sumed to found our system of Propriety and Taste. 

If we undertake to measure an art by its rules, and it is fool- 
ish to attempt it without them, we must carry with our censure, 
some knowledge of the ways and means of its perfection. Er- 
rors are in all cases, contrasts to truth ; and in elocution, they 
are only the misemployment of those vocal constituents, which 
in their proper forms and uses, produce both the instinctive and 
conventional method of just and elegant speech : for some of 
the finest colors of the art, though well and truly laid-on, are 
dipped from the same sources as its faults. Whoever, with 
pretensions to taste, declares his perception of blemishes in an 
art, without having at the same time, some rule for its beauty, 
speaks as #the dupe of authority, or with ignorance both of his 



FAULTS OF READERS. 

subject and of himself. Let its then try to perform these 
inseparable duties, by giving the outline of a just and elegant 
elocution, with a particular enumeration of its faults. 

While investigating the phenomena, and regarding the 
of speech, I have always endeavored to keep in view the purest 
and most elevated designs of taste. It will be little more than 
recapitulation therefore to say j the faultless reader should have 
the various qualities of voice from the full laryngeal bass of the 
orotund, to the lighter and lip-issuing sound of daily conversa- 
tion. He should give distinctly that pronunciation of single 
elements and their aggregates, both as to quantity and accent, 
which accords with the habitual perceptions of his audience. 
His plain melody should be diatonic and varied in radical pitch, 
beyond discoverable monotony. His simple concrete should be 
equable in the rise, and diminution of its vanish. His tremor 
should be under full command for occasions of grief and exul- 
tation. Discrimination and taste must have fixed the places of 
emphasis, and a knowledge of its forms and degrees, have 
afforded the means for a varied and expressive application of 
them. He should be able to prolong his voice through every 
extent of quantity in the wave, and in every concrete interval 
of the rising and the falling scale. He must have learned to put 
off from the dignified occasions of reading, everything like that 
canting or affected intonation, which the artful courtesies and 
sacrificing servilities of life too often confirm into habit ; and 
to avoid in his interrogations the keenness and excesses of the 
vulgar tongue. He should have for this, as for every other 
Fine Art, a delicate sense of the Sublime, the Graceful, and 
the Ridiculous. A quick perception of the last is absolutely 
necessary, to guard the exalted works of taste, from an acci- 
dental, occurrence of its causes. 

It may perhaps be considered presumptuous, thus to propose 
rules of taste and criticism in the Art of speaking. Before the 
analytic development of speech, this could not have been done : 
and the attempt would have been equally the act of ignorance, 
and folly, the very causes of presumption. We have nCW 
ascertained the constituents of vocal expression, sufficiently at 



556 FAULTS OF READERS. 

least, to advance some steps towards a system ; and it seems to 
be no undue anticipation of what must hereafter form a great 
purpose in the schools of elocution, to suggest a use of these 
constituents, that may satisfy the cultviated ear. 

If however, any supposed presumption should require apo- 
logy, or justification, let me here say a word on the system I 
have offered 3 and on the manner and means of its production. 

In embracing the opportunity of investigating the subject of 
the human voice, which others equally, and perhaps better 
qualified had suffered to pass by, I brought to the inquiry some 
instinctive facility of ear, and some acquired knowledge of the 
science and practice of music. On taking-up the general idea 
of the concrete movement, where the Ancients had left it 3 and 
thereupon tracing an identity between certain constituent func- 
tions of speech, and of music 3 the train of investigation soon 
led to a discovery, that the individual vocal constituents of 
speech, like those of music, are comparatively few. This at 
once unfolded the cause of the mystery ; for the delusions of 
that mystery were the result of a belief either in the inscruta- 
ble character of the constituents of intonation, or in the unre- 
solvable complication of their aggregates; and this unquestioned 
belief had deafened all perception of their individuality. By 
resolving these complicated aggregates into distinguishable 
species and individuals, thus circumscribing the differences, it 
brought their assignable number and forms within the discri- 
minative power of observation. The greatest difficulty was now 
overcome ; for by an unobscured perception of the disentangled 
individual, it was easy to make out the relationship between a 
state of mind, and its vocal sign. With this knowledge, 
obtained through my own experimental illustration, I turned 
to the uncorrupted vocal instincts of children and of sub-ani- 
mals 3 to observe the particular constituents of passionate 
expression ; and then to common life, as well as to the eminent 
elocution of the Stagey to compare the ordained constituents of 
both thought and passion with their conventional usages in 
speech. The power of tracing the individual constituents, and 
of recognizing their single and combined effects, brought me to 



FAULTS OF READERS. 557 

the belief, that the system here proposed has its Origin and its 
Confirmation in Nature; and is therefore weU adapted, by its 
analysis, to gratify the lover of truth j and by the practical uses 
founded upon it, to contribute to the pleasures of an enlight- 
ened taste. 

While developing this system of Efficient causation, I Was 
led to perceive a wise conformity of the vocal means, to the 
expressive ends of speech ; and to remark therein, at least the 
reasonableness of the system, if I did not dare to draw from 
the idea of such Final causation, any confirmative evidence of 
its truth. In our. preceding history, a broad and important 
distinction is made between the vocal functions, representing 
simple thought, and those expressive of passion. To one divi- 
sion, we allotted the second and its plain diatonic melody. To 
the other, the semitone, with the wider intervals and waves : 
manifest differences in the vocal means, being thus definitely 
accommodated to manifest differences between the thoughtive 
and passionative states of mind. On the ground of this rea- 
sonable appropriation of different means to a different end, it is 
conclusive, that the rule of rules, nowhere, and never forgotten 
by Nature j this Rule of Fitness j being unknown, or disregarded, 
or only rarely perceived in the use of intonation, must be con- 
stantly violated by speakers : that a current melody of thirds, 
or fifths, or wider waves, must counteract the Final Cause "1" 
Nature, in allotting a different vocal expression respectively to 
passion and to thought; confound her intended contradistinc- 
tions ; prevent the repose of the ear on the unimpassioned dia- 
tonic ; and wear out its excitability to the emphatic power of 
wider intervals, when required for occasional purposes of vivid 
expression. 

There is another consideration, to justify the establishment 
of a system of some kind, if it should not plead for the one 
which is offered here. When the several yoices of thought and 
of expression are individually distinguishable, the precision of 
their use must become an object of attention and criticism with 
an audience ; and thus, under an admitted rule for their em- 
ployment, the representation of thought and passion, will be 
more uniform, and therefore more clear and impressive. It' v.e 



558 FAULTS OF READERS. 

vary and confound the appropriate meaning of the vocal signs, 
even when they are joined with conventional language, we may 
come in time to destroy, and must always weaken, the character 
and force of those signs. If we constantly whine in the chro- 
matic melody, or cry out emphatically in the wider intervals 
and waves, to no purpose of complaint or surprise, we shall in 
vain seek for sympathy, when the wolf of expression in reality 
seizes upon us. 

In looking for a Rule of excellence in the art of elocution, 
we are always referred, as in the other fine arts, to Nature. 
But Nature with her laws concealed from the whole mass of 
Mystagogues and Imitators, is when thus shut-out from the 
light of analysis, an unassignable pattern ; and seems here, as 
in so many other cases, to be no more than the omniform parent 
of sectarian opinion; and like the changeable features of Liberty 
with the patriot, of Experience with the physician, Right with 
the moralist, and of Orthodoxy with the bigot 3 shows as many 
faces as there are self-deceiving tongues that take her name in 
vain. If nature, the deformed instinct of human nature, I 
mean, is to be the rule, it can be only by the individual 
instances of excellence she produces : if her excellencies are 
scattered throughout the species, it is Art that must ordain 
this canon, by collecting them into one faultless example. 
And where is the instance in this corrupted nature, worthy of 
imitation ? Is it to be found in the drawl of the slothful ? In 
the snappish stress of the petulent ? The short quantity and 
precipitate time of the frivolous ? In the continued diatonic of 
the saturnine ? Or the eternal whine of the unhappy ? Is it 
in the canting drift of the passion-masking hypocrite ; or in the 
voice of those morbid sensibilities, which live upon exaggera- 
tion ? Shall we look for it in the daily-changing and mincing 
affectations of the Fashionable-Foolish ; or in the thousand 
contrarieties of National accent, quantity, and intonation, yet 
each in pride and ignorance, self-aright ? Shall we find this 
nature's paragon, in the chatterings of the great market of 
life, that hurries through its melody, denies itself the repose of 
the cadence, and in uproar after rank and power, and bidding 



PAULTS OF HEADERS. 

for its bargains of office or notoriety, strains itself to its 
hoarsest note ? 

These are the individual instances of vocal deformity pre- 
sented by Nature, with sacrilege so called, and daily suffered 
to pass without remark, because we are engaged at the moment 
with other thoughts and designs $ and which we perceive only 
when the voice itself as a subject of taste, is the exclusive 
object of reflective and discriminating attention. 

Although a Compensating Nature, still holding her regards 
over the wayward errors of the human voice, may not, under its 
corruptions, deign to show us a single instance of the fitness 
and beauty of her laws; she has, as an indication of her means 
for perfecting the vocal powers of the individual, diffused 
throughout the species, all the constituents of that perfection. 
A description of the true character and wise design of these 
constituents, and the gathering-in of their scattered proprieties 
and beauties, furnish the full and choicest pattern of Imitablc- 
Nature ; which, reduced to an orderly system of precept and 
example, must hereafter constitute the proper and elegant Art 
of Elocution. 

The Canon, so called, of statuary in Greece, which repre- 
sented no singly-existing form, but which was said to contain 
within the Rule of its Design, all the master-principles of the 
Art j was the deliberate work of Observation, Time, and careful 
Experiment on the Eye, in the very method of reflective and 
discriminating Selection, we here claim for Elocution ; and was 
finished at last, by Polycletus, only after previous ages of suc- 
cessive improvement. If an individual of nature might be 
taken as a model in the arts, we should not at this late day be 
so often obliged to listen to bad readers ; nor to hear such 
clashing opinions, upon those who pass for the best. The pro- 
ductions of taste would have forerun a present needed cultiva- 
tion ; and in reverse of the tedious growth of centuries, would 
like thQSe goodly trees in the garden of Eden, have been ripe 
at their planting. 

The masters in Elocution, not perceiving, thai Speaking- 
well is One, in the beautiful Sisterhood of the Fine Arts, 



560 FAULTS OF READERS. 

and not drawing from a common fund of abstract principles, 
the precepts that might be applicable to their ownj have some- 
times varied their old and imperfect rule of teaching by Imita- 
tion, to something like the system of nature, as they think, by 
requiring their pupil, not to imitate another, but figuratively as 
it were, to imitate himself. Imagine yourself, says the Mas- 
ter, to be delivering the ideas of an author as if they were 
your own. 

Now such a direction, in assuming to be the rule for a just 
and effective elocution, only requires a pupil to speak as he 
pleases ; that is, as his own particular ideas prompt him ; for 
by the direction, he is to make the ideas of the author his own ; 
but having, as implied by the necessity of the direction, no 
previous rule, he is left to utter them only as he pleases by an 
assumed rule of his own. At best then, under this direction, a 
class of a thousand pupils, in seeking the general precept for 
these adopted ideas would discovery there must be a thousand 
different precepts ; since each must speak by his own. In 
short, it is an unnecessary direction of an unthinking master. 
For no one can read well, except he does spontaneously read 
as if the ideas were his own : thus showing the superfluity at 
least of directing him to make the ideas his own, in order to 
read well. And again, the pupil who cannot so far understand 
the plain verbal signs of an author's ideas, as to be able to repre- 
sent them from description, would be very likely to mistake the 
vocal signs of those which under his master's direction, he might • 
try to make his own. Let us however, suppose 3 this rule of 
Self-Imitation might serve for common-place ideas, on everyday 
occasions. 

On the other hand, suppose the art of reading to be exerted 
in representing the utmost force and delicacy of dramatic 
character, and of imaginative creation by a poet. How, with 
the great Crowd of mankind, will the rule of substitution meet 
this case ? I have more than once, seen among Aspirants of 
the Stage, the pitiable result of what was supposed to be a 
representation of the Truth of Nature, by this affecting to 
become identical with their Character, in assuming the ideas of 



FAULTS OF READERS. 561 

another as their own ; a representation of nature, without a 
knowledge of her constitution and laws ; a constitution, coeval 
with the period of human progress into speech. 

All the Fine Arts are essentially Arts* each the offspring of 
a fruitful alliance between Knowledge and intellectual facility : 
the high accomplishment of the work by the Artist, and the 
reflective enjoyment of its truth and beauty by the Votary. 
being purely the result of close observation, extensive compari- 
son, enlightened choice, and harmonized combination of the 
scattered constituents of propriety, unity, expression, grandeur 
and grace. 

Many of the faults of speakers arise from their being taught 
by imitation alone. As long as there has been a history of the 
Stage, so long, Actors have been classed in the school of some 
Preceding, or Cotemporary master. But inasmuch as there is 
always one, who by chance or by merit is the Leader of the 
• lustrum j' and even five years is a long life for fashionable 
fame^ it generally happens that his faults may for the time, be 
recognized throughout a crowd of pupils and imitators. From 
the want of some definite corrective, the bad reading of a Pul- 
pit sometimes infects a whole class of students > who circum- 
scribe the active benefits of their master's solemn instruction, 
by taking up his sinful elocution. 

It may be saidj If we establish a system of principles, all 
readers must be of one school, and this will be equivalent to 
imitation. There would be one school ; a school of acknow- 
ledged and permanent precept, with a similarity in its excel- 
lence, not in its defects. Many actors who differ from each 
other in their faults, yet give occasional short sentences with 
identical propriety, without exciting a remark on that identity : 
for propriety is here, the fitness of truth. It is only upon 
some imitated outrage of utterance, that in a moment, the whis- 
pered name of a prototype is heard in twenty parts of a thea- 
tre. Serious imitations of distinguished Actors and Speaki 
like gay mimicries of them, me generally made on peculiar 
pronunciation, monotony, unpleasant quality of Voice 5 peculiar 



562 FAULTS OF READERS. 

forms of melody, whining, false cadence, or no cadence at all, 
and precipitate and unaccountable transitions.* 

But, enough of argument on this subject. The art of Elocu- 
tion has never yet, by system or rule, reached that consum- 
mation, which in analogy with the abstract delineation of Form, 
may be called, the Ideal Beauty of Speech. The corrupted 
and faltering instinct of individuals, has been for each and all, 
the universal guide ; and the best management of the voice has, 
under so poor a master, far-fallen short of effective means for 
the highest oral excellence : while the common herd of pre- 
tenders afford both shocking and endless examples of deformity 
and error. 

It is not the intention here, to speak of the constitutional 
deformities of the voice. It is difficult however, to draw a 
line of distinction on this subject. Too many of the wilful 
vices of life, through self-delusion, pass for misfortunes : and 
it can scarcely be made a question, whether the impudent dis- 
play of even natural failings should not shut-out the subject 
from indulgent commiseration. 

* Strange, indeed! that such faults should be found among distinguished 
Actors and Speakers. But I write from observation; having heard them all. 

The celebrated -> who had a grating and untunable quality of voice, 

and whose elocution as I recollect it, was affected and monotonous, in a formal 
melody of wider intervals and waves, with an occasional minor third in em- 
phatic places j would, after some of the Older Poets, pronounce when nobody 
else did, the plural of ache, as two syllables, to the unseasonable merriment of 
all who heard him. The use of the minor third however, was not peculiar to 
him, for it seems to be a vocal tradition, still kept up among the English. The 
Quakers, particularly their women, in public preaching, employ it to an extra- 
vagant degree; and, from the incorrigible character of all sectarianism, proba- 
bly had it in the time of Fox; whose followers may have derived it through 
the earlier Protestants, from some awkward imitation of chanting, in the 
Catholic-service. Be this as it may, it is not uncommon, in private life, even 
with women of the higher classes, in England ; and very common on the Stage. 
We often hear it in Actors as well as Actresses who come over to us. We had 
some years ago, one of the latter, whose intonation was almost a melody of 
minor thirds. As long as she lasted, it was thought very fine ; and was imi- 
itated by many American theatric Misses. Its affectation was so remarkable, 
that it was a subject of mimicry for every shop-girl with a good ear, who 
heard it. 



FAULTS OF READER-. 

There are three points, of the first importance to a speaker : 
and if deficiencies therein are not to be called misfortun 
mav rank them as great and generic faults. I mean the defects 
of the Mind, of the Ear, and of Industry. 

Speech is intended to be the sign of every variety of thought 
and passion. If therefore the mind of a scholar be not raised 
to that generality of condition, which can assume all the charac- 
ters of expression, he will in vain aspire to great eminence in 
the art. If his mind is endued only with the diplomatic virtue 
of unruffled caution ; if it is of that character which compli- 
ments its own dulness by calling energy, violence j and drawls 
out in reprobation at the vivid language of truth ; if all its busy 
goings are just around the little circle of its own selfish schemes ; 
if it has yet to know itself, as only a compound of thought, and 
passion ; and to hear, without being convinced, that success in 
every art is not more indebted to the plans of sagacious thought, 
than to the perseverance of thoughtful passion; if the mind, I 
repeat it, is of such a cast, its possessor may with the resources 
of elementary knowledge, and method j attain a certain profi- 
ciency in the art, may save himself from its striking faults, and 
probably satisfy his own uncircumspect judgment : but he can 
never reach the highest accomplishment in elocution. 

In speaking of the mental requisites for good reading, we 
must not overlook our frequent neglect to discriminate between 
a merely energetic, and a delicate state of mind. The latter 
makes the full and finished Actor ; and it is unfortunate for his 
art, that endowments, which under proper cultivation insure 
Success, are generally united with a modesty that retires from 
the places and occasions for displaying its merits : while the 
former in reaching but the coarse energy of the passions, is 
able to figure on the Stage, only as the outrageous Herod, the 
brazen Beatrice, and the Buffoon. 

The mind, with its comprehensive and refined discrimina- 
tions, must furnish the design of elocution ; the ear must watch 
over the lines and coloring of it> expression. 

The ability to measure nicely the time, force, and pitch <>f 
Bounds, is indispensable to the higher excellencies of speech. 



564 FAULTS OF READERS. 

It is impossible to say how much of the musical ear, properly 
so called, is the result of cultivation. There is however a wide 
difference even in the earliest aptitudes of this organ ; and 
though the means of improvement derived from analysis will 
hereafter greatly increase the proportional number of good 
readers, and produce something like an equality among them 3 
still the possession of a musical ear must, with other requisites, 
always give a superiority. 

I have more than once in this essay, urged the importance of 
Industry, the third general means for success. Neglect on this 
point may be considered as an egregious fault in a speaker : 
and it certainly is the most culpable. It is here placed on high 
ground, along with mental susceptibility and delicacy of ear, 
those essentials which have been designated by the indefinite 
term ' genius.' In vain will the mind furnish its finest discri- 
minations, or the ear be ready with its measurements, if the 
tongue should not contribute its persevering industry. By a 
figure of speech that took a part for the whole of the senses, a 
happy penalty upon mankind, as it was early written, doomed 
the taste to be gratified by the sweat of the brow : the ear can 
receive its full delight in Elocution, only through the long 
labor of the voice. 

The faults of speakers are of endless variety : but if I have 
told the whole truth, they embrace no mode or form of voice, 
here unnamed. It seems as if nature had assumed, in her 
adjusted system of speech, all its available signs. The worldly 
tongue, with his corrupting habit, in deforming this all-perfect 
gift, makes no addition to its constituents, but performs his part 
in human error, by misplacing them. In the present history of 
the faults of speech, we may therefore pursue something like 
the order, more than once, given to our subject. 

The five general heads, under which we considered the 
Modes of the voice, are Quality, Time, Force, Abruptness, and 
Pitch. 

Of Faults in Quality. This subject is so well known, both 
in the Art, and in common criticism, that it is unnecessary to 
be particular upon it. Harshness or roughness is one of the 



FAULTS OP READERS. 565 

disagreeable qualities of the voice. The nasal is still more 
offensive. Shrillness may rather be called a quality than a 
state of Pitch. It wants dignity, seems like a mockery of the 
voice, and though heard remotely, and drawing attention, it is 
with the attraction of a caricature. The huskiness of aspira- 
tion is more apt to be united with the orotund. It does not 
indeed diminish the gravity and sober grandeur of this voice, 
but it obscures the clearness of its vocality. 

The falsette is occasionally used as a current quality of the 
voice. "VVe sometimes hear persons on the stage, in the senate, 
the fervent pulpit, and on the scaffold of the demagogue, who 
offend with the falsette only occasionally, by the melody break- 
ing from the natural voice, on a single syllable. Every speaker 
has a falsette ; and the skilful can always guard against its 
improper use. As a fault, it results either from the narrow 
compass of the natural voice, or from a defect of ear in the 
speaker ; for not having an accurate perception of his approach 
to it, he is unable to avoid the evil, by a ready descent of into- 
nation. 

The falsette is common in the voices of women. It has with 
them a plaintive character ; and the melody at this high pitch 
is apt to be monotonous. 

Of Faults in Time. It is not meant to treat here, of what is 
called reading too fast or too slow. There is nothing new to 
be said on this point. But we who speak English are said, by 
the report of the compilers of Greek and of Latin grammars, to 
know nothing of quantity, and to have none in our language. 
That bad readers, and persons who will not learn their own 
tongue may know nothing of its quantity, is readily granted; 
still, that it is an essential part of every language, and the 
neglect of it, a source of many faults in ours, must be admitted 
by those who know the effect of syllabic time, and the proper 
use of the voice. 

Quantity, as a fault, may be too long or too short. When 
states of mind requiring short time, sueh as gayety and anger, 
are expressed by long quantity, it produces the vice of Drawling. 
This drawling may go through its exoessive quantity, either as 



566 FAULTS OF READERS. 

a wave of the second, or an equal or unequal wave of wider in- 
tervals, or as the note of Song. 

When deliberate or solemn discourse is hurried over in short 
syllabic quantity, the fault is no less apparent and offensive. 
This defect in reading is by far the most common ; and it has 
been said, more than once, in this essay, because it is well to 
rouse the English ear to this subject, that the command over 
time in the pure and equable concrete of speech, is found only 
in speakers of fervent temperament and long experience. Such 
persons instinctively acquire the use of extended quantity : as 
through long syllables, most of their earnest expression is 
effected. It is from ignorance of this fact, that some speakers, 
neglecting the variety and smoothness of the temporal emphasis, 
give prominence to important syllables only by the hammering 
of stress. 

Of Faults in Force. The misapplication of the degrees of 
the piano and the forte, in the general current of discourse is 
sufficiently obvious. But the forms of stress, on different parte 
of the concrete, have never been observed, and consequently, 
have never been noted as a fault. 

Many speakers, from a difficulty in commanding the varia- 
tions in quantity, execute most of their emphasis in the form of 
force ; yet even in this apparently simple effort, they are not 
free from faults. Some persons, after the manner of the Irish, 
employ the vanishing stress on all emphatic syllables. This 
has its meaning in expression, but it is misplaced, except on 
the occasions formerly pointed out. A want of the sharp and 
abrupt character of the radical is not an uncommon fault. It 
occurs generally in the dull and indolent : for nothing shows 
so clearly an elastic temper in the voice, as the ability to 
explode suddenly this initial stress. On the other hand it is a 
more frequent fault, to over-stress the accented syllable, by 
that hammering of the voice, which destroys the dignity of de- 
liberate intonation. This over-stress does most violence to the 
solemn expression, appropriate to many parts of the Church- 
service : for here the waves of the second, on indefinite quan- 
tities, whether accented or not j including by license, even a 



FAULTS OF READERS. 567 

slight extension of the shortest syllables j should with cant' 
management, and not unlike the ' leaning note ' of song, he 
carried by a blending quantity from concrete to concrete, in a 
reverentive drift of deliberate dignity; the necessary empha 
being made by a comparative excess of quantity, with the im- 
pressive and graceful gliding of the median stress. 

It is not my intention to notice the faults of emphasis, in the 
common acceptation of the term. They all resolve into a want 
of true apprehension on the part of the reader. Through igno- 
rance of other constituents of an enlarged and definite elocu- 
tion, which our present inquiry has taught us to appreciate and 
to recommend, this well known subject of stress-laying emphasis, 
has always been of the first importance, in the art ; while un- 
fortunately in the school of imitation, it has restrictivcly 
assumed, at least a nominal superiority over the other modes of 
speech. ' How admirably she reads,' said a thoughtless critic, 
of an actress, who, with perhaps a proper emphasis of Force, A\as 
nevertheless, deforming her utterance, by every fault of Time 
and Intonation. The critic was one of those who Inning neither 
knowledge nor docility, deserved neither argument nor correc- 
tion. Emphasis of stress, being almost the only branch of 
elocution in which there is an approach towards a practical 
rule, this single function, under an ignorance of other mode- <>[' 
emphatic distinction, has, by a figure of speech grounded on 
its real importance, been assumed in the limited nomenclature 
of criticism, as almost the sole essential of the art. Even Mr. 
Kemble, whose eulogy should have been founded on whatever 
other merits he may have possessed, made, if we have not been 
misinformed, the first stir of his fame, by a new 'reading,' that 
is, by a new discriminative stress, in some scene or other, of 
Hamlet. Under this view, it would seem, that he who properly 
applies the emphasis of force, in the Art of Heading, accom- 
plishes all its purpose; he reads well. 

We have awarded to the emphasis of force its due. but Dot 
its undue degree of consequence; and perhaps it may he here- 
after admitted, that much of the contention about certain unim- 
portant points of this stress-laying emphasis, and of pause, has 



568 FAULTS OF READERS. 

arisen from critics finding very little else of the vast compass 
of speech, on which they were able to form for themselves a 
determinate opinion. When, under a scientific institute of 
elocution, we shall have more important matters to study, and 
delight in, we may perhaps findj much of this trifling lore of 
italic notation, now serving to keep up common-place contention 
in a daily gazette, will be quite overlooked, in the high court of 
philosophic criticism.* 

* Some one, of those who like to make business in an art, rather than to do 
it, has raised a question whether the following lines from Macbeth, should be 
read with a pause at banners or at walls : 

Mac. Hang out our banners on the outward walls 
The cry is still, They come. 

To those whose elocution consists in such riddles, we propose the following, 
from Goldsmith : 

A man he was, to all the country dear, 
And passing rich with forty pounds a year. 

Now let them guess variously, or sharply dispute, upon the question of apply- 
ing an emphasis on passing, or on rich; thereby to determine either that the 
good Village Parson was passing or superlatively rich, with his forty pounds; or 
that he passed among his parishioners, as only very well-off in the world. 

I some time ago noticed the following punctuation, in one of those wandering 
Actors known as Stars. 

I'll call thee Hamlet, 
King, Father; royal Dane answer me. 

Perhaps, after writing the words King and Father, the Poet's choiceful ear 
was deluded into the repetition Royal Dane, by the fine variety of elemental 
sound, and rythmic accent and quantity in the Title. The ambitious reading of 
the Star was worse than careless, without an apology^ by imploring emphati- 
cally of the Royal Dane what he would not of Hamlet, King, and Father. 

I heard another erratic Star of critical illumination, read thus : 

How fares our cousin Hamlet ? 
Ham. Excellent, i' faith, of the chamelion's dish I eat ; the air promise- 
crammed. 

Leaving it to a brighter star light to show, whether Hamlet, or the air was 
thus inconsiderately crammed. 

Some persons who might be profitably employed to Square Timber, make- 
show of doing something by whittling sticks. 



FAULTS OF READERS. 569 

We do not speak of the faults of pronunciation, depending 
on misplaced verbal accents. Propriety in this matter is 
forth in the dictionary, and the errors of speech may be 
measured by its conventional rules. Nor is it within the pur- 
pose of this essay to notice faults in the pronunciation of the 
alphabetic elements. Criticism should be modest on this point j 
till it has the sense or independence to give to the literal sym- 
bols of those elements, and to their redundant, and defective 
uses, more of the character of a work of wisdom, than they 
have ever received in any written language ; till the pardon- 
able variety of pronunciation, and the ear-directed spelling by 
the vulgar, have satirized into reformation, that scholastic pen- 
craft which keeps up the difficulties of orthography, with no 
other purpose, as it would seem, than to pride itself j in the use 
of a troublesome and awkward system, as a criterion of educa- 
tion, and with the tyranny of habit, to oppose every reasonable 
attempt to correct it. 

Of Faults in Pitch. Speech has been especially, one of 
those many subjects, in which we often pronounce upon the 
right and the wrong, without being able to say why they are 
so. If we have resolved the obscurity in respect to the pro- 
prietics of intonation ; it will not be difficult on similar prin- 
ciples, to give some explanation of its faults. 

Of Faults in the Concrete Movement. I have more than 
once spoken of that peculiar characteristic of speech, the full 
opening, the gradual decrease, and the delicate termination of 
the concrete. As this structure is destroyed by the use both 
of the vanishing, and the thorough stress, it follows that their 
misapplication must be regarded as a fault. The vanishing 
stress, exemplified in the upward jerk of Irish pronunciation, 
produces a peculiar monotony, wdien continued throughout dis- 
course ; while the thorough stress, if not used for especial 
emphasis, or designed incivility, is a striking and a vulgar 
fault. Every one must be familiar with what is called a coarse 
and unmannerly tone. This, as regards the structure of the 
concrete, was formerly shown to be the effect of the thorough 
stress. Some readers seem incapable of carrying on a Long 
37 



570 FAULTS OF READERS. 

quantity through the equable concrete ; substituting in place 
of it, the note of song. The most remarkable instance of this 
speech-singing, is that of the public preaching of the Friends, 
to be particularly described among the faults in melody. 

Of Faults in the Semitone. Who has not heard of whining ? 
It is the misplaced use of the semitone. The semitone is the 
vocal sign of tenderness, petition, complaint, and doubtful sup- 
plication : but never of manly confidence, and the authoritative 
self-reliance of truth. It is this which betrays the sycophant, 
and even the crafty hypocrite himself. They assume a plain- 
tive persuasion, or a tuneful cant, not merely to imply 3 they 
are prompted by a kindly and affectionate state of mind, but 
sometimes because they unconsciously distrust or despise them- 
selves, and are therefore influenced by the mental state of 
servility. Suspicion should therefore be awake, when the 
show of truth or benevolence is proffered under the whine of 
this cringing interval ; and in general, whenever the semitone 
is used for a state of mind that does not call for it. A beggar 
should, by the instinct of his voice, plaintively implore ; and 
it is equally a law of nature, which abhors hypocrisy no less 
than a vacuum, that he should give the truth of his narrative 
in a more confident intonation. 

The chromatic melody is more common among women. Ac- 
tresses are prone to this fault; and it is one of the causes 
which frequently prevent their assuming the matron-rofe of 
tragedy, and the dignified severity of epic, and dramatic elocu- 
tion. Women sometimes intercede, threaten, complain, smile, 
and call the footman, all in the minor third or the semitone. 
They can vow, and love, and burst into agony in Belvidera ; 
but rarely by masculine personation and diatonic energy, 
6 chastise with the (orotund) valor of their tongue,' and gravely 
order the scheme of murder in Lady Macbeth. 

We have described the states of mind signified by the semi- 
tone. Whenever it supplants the proper diatonic melody, it 
becomes a fault, and begins to be monotonous ; for when appro- 
priate it never is so. I once heard the part of Dr. Cantwell, 



FAULTS OF READERS. ~,71 

in the Hypocrite, played in the chromatic melody throu 
Perhaps it suited the pretensions of the pious villain, hut it 
certainly was a palling monotony to the ear; and the wa 
transition, when he threw off the mask, in addressing his 
patron's wife, was remarkable. He was the righteous knave 
and the passionate lover, all in the same intonation. On the 
whole, the effect would have been more agreeable, if an abati d, 
slow, and monotonous drift of the second had prevailed; with 
the use of the chromatic melody, when required by the pa 

Of Faults in the Second. The ear has its green as well as 
the eye; and the plain interval of the second in curren 
elegant speech, like the verdure of the earth, is wisely designe 1. 
to relieve sensation from the fatiguing stimulus of undue, and 
more vivid impressions. Though the diatonic melody, in a 
well composed elocution, is simple and unobtrusive, and thus 
affords a ground-hue for bringing out the contrasted color of 
expressive intervals; yet it does, when continued into the place 
of this wider intonation, assume a positive character, under the 
form of a fault. 

A striking instance of a misapplication of the second, is its 
employment for that state of mind which properly requires the 
semitone. I formerly spoke of its false expression, occasion- 
ally heard in the public cry of Fire. There are persons of 
such a frigid temperament, or with such inflexible organs, even 
when some mental warmth does not appear to be wanting, that 
they seem incapable under ordinary motives, of executing the 
chromatic melody. Pain, or some selfish instinct may force 
then, to it; yet it seems, in them, to be so slightly associated 
with tenderness, or so little under command, that the most 
pathetic passages are given in the comparatively phleg 
intonation of the diatonic melody. AVe sometimes see an 
An.,,- of this unchanging drift of temper, cast, on the emer- 
gencies of a night, to the part of a lover : and may occasionally 
hear from the pulpit, fervent appeals of the Litany, and humble 
petitions of extemporary prayer, under an intonation, more 
appropriate to the task of repeating the multiplication table. 



572 FAULTS OF READERS. 

Some persons are prone to an over use of the second ; for 
even this plain and inexpressive interval when thus misplaced, 
so far defeats the purposes of speech that we are sometimes 
more indebted to grammatical construction, than to the voice, 
for a perception of their interrogations. It is the same too 
with their emphasis, in those conditional and positive sentences 
which, for impressive and varied effect, respectively require 
the rising, and the falling interval of the third, or fifth, or 
octave. 

The most important function of the second, consists in the 
successions of the diatonic melody. The character of these 
successions, as we learned in the eighth section, is produced 
by a varied composition of the seven phrases. We have now 
to learn how far the common practice of readers, deviates 
from the described, but perhaps as yet only described, perfec- 
tion of a pure diatonic melody. 

Of Faults in the Melody of Speech. If the rule laid down 
in this essay for constructing an agreeable succession of dia- 
tonic phrases, is founded in propriety and taste, I must de- 
clare, I have never yet heard its conditions strictly fulfiled, in 
a well arranged, and satisfactory melody. Players spend their 
time before mirrors, till grace of person is studied into man- 
nerism, and expression of feature distorted into grimace. 
Emphasis of stress too, is teased in experiment, through every 
word of a sentence, and tested in authority, by all the tradi- 
tions of the Green-Room : but who has ever thought of any 
assignable rules for the successions of syllabic pitch in a cur- 
rent melody, or imagined therein, the existence of describable 
faults ! 

The First fault to be noticed, is the continued use of the 
monotone, on the same line of radical pitch ; the vanish of the 
second or of wider intervals, being properly performed. I do 
not here mean the drawl of the parish-clerk, nor the monotony 
of the reading-clerk of most public assemblies ; for these are 
sometimes the note of song, and will be spoken-of presently. 
The unvaried line of radical pitch, now under consideration, is 



FAULTS OF READERS. 573 

not so glaring as this old conventicle tune, nor has it at all the 
character of song. If the reader were near me, I would illus- 
trate the peculiarity of this fault ; and I can only describe it, 
as preventing the agreeable effect, arising from the contrast of 
pitch ; the transition in the case of a continued monotone, with 
a rising concrete, being from a feeble vanish to a full radical, 
only one tone below the summit of that vanish ; while in the 
falling-ditone succession of a varied melody, the distance is two 
tones below the summit of the preceding vanish. 

One of the causes of this fault in public speakers, deserves 
to be noticed here. I spoke of vociferation as a means for 
imparting vigor and fulness to the voice ; but this exercise 
being generally on a high pitch, tends to prevent a proper vari- 
ation of the current of speech. Speakers who address large 
assemblies, and who have not that clear vocality and distinct 
articulation which would insure the required reach of voice, 
generally attempt to remedy the defect, by rising to the utmost 
limit of the natural compass, and continuing their current just 
below the falsette. For fear of breaking into this, they avoid 
the rising phrases of melody ; while the purpose to be distantly 
heard through an elevated pitch, prevents their descending by 
radical change. They consequently continue on one monotonous 
line near the falsette; and thus vitiate their taste by the par- 
tial pleas of their own example; restrain their melodial flexi- 
bility; and blunt their perception of the variety of movement 
in a more reduced current of pitch.* 

Second. Melody is deformed by a predominance of the phrase 
of the monotone, together with a full cadence at every pause. 
Tli is perhaps is only found in the first attempts at reading by 
children and rustics. 



* This cause operates on the enthusiasts of the Pulpit; on ninny of the 
speakers, and always on the clerk of the Loiver House of the American Con- 
gress; where the scrambling cries to be first heard, with the uproar "I' titular 
Ilonorables, overrule the gentlemanly rights, and duties of the voice ; hut i( is 
most remarkable in the mouth of the stump and scaffold Demagogue, whose 
own political designs lead him to address great crowds in the open air. 



574 FAULTS OF READERS. 

Third. By a proper use of the phrases of melody within a 
limited extent, but with a formal return of the same successions. 
In this case, the whole discourse is subdivided into sections, 
resembling each other in the order of pitch ; the sections con- 
sisting of entire sentences, or of their members. This habit of 
the voice and ear, in dividing the melody into sections, as well 
as in forming accentual and pausal divisions, seems to be con- 
nected with one of the characters of style : for there is a ten- 
dency in some persons to give a like construction, and often an 
equal length to their sentences. 

All Actors, except those of the first class, and they are not as 
finished on this point as they may be hereafter 3 are prone to this 
bird-like kind of intonation. They have a short run of melody, 
which if not forcibly interrupted by some peculiar expression, 
is constantly recurring. The return forms a kind of melodial 
measure : and I now call to mind an Actress of great repute, 
whose intonation was filled with emphasis of thirds, fifths, 
octaves, and waves ; and whose sections of melody could be 
anticipated, with something like the forerunning of the mind 
over the rythmus of a common stanza of alternate versification. 
Those who commit this fault, will have no difficulty in recogni- 
zing and correcting it, if desirable, when the mirror of full and 
exact description is held before them. 

The monotonous effect of a repetition of these similar melo- 
dial sections, constitutes one of the signs by which the smart 
apprentices of the Pit, and some of their better-dressed peers in 
the Boxes, distinguish the voices of famous Actors, and think 
they represent their real points of excellence, when they mimic 
only the mannerism of their faults. This recurring section of 
a similar melody may in itself, consist of a proper succession 
of phrases : but being unvaried, you hear it too often and 
remember it too well. The whole current in this case, figura- 
tively resembles the old Roman Festoon, which however well 
adapted to an insulated tablet, was in abasement of Greek 
architectural taste, joined in monotonous repetition around the 
frieze ; instead of representing, as a just melody might, the idea 



FAULTS OF READERS. 5fO 

of that variation in severe simplicity and expressive 
which adorned the metopes of the Parthenon. 

Fourth. I have known more than one speaker with this fault. 
Sentences arc begun aloud on a high, and ended almost inaudi- 
bly on a low degree of pitch; and so continued successively 
throughout a whole discourse: thus producing a monotony, 
similar in effect, to that last described. It would be difficult to 
find out the meaning of this fault, or to discover such a shadow 
of apology for it, as many worse offences in life might claim for 
themselves. One of the persons, addicted to this monstrous 
piece of affectation 3 for no instinctive, nor conventional motive 
could ever have directed itj was, first by himself we presume, 
and then by the associates of his long since departed day of 
popularity, called i a fine reader.' Such instances of fame may 
serve to convince us, that with all our blind conceits, and who 
among us is without them 3 there is no art in which self-imposi- 
tion is more conspicuous than in that of Elocution. When 
there is no acknowledged rule of excellence, every individual 
cultivated or not, makes his own judgment and taste the stan- 
dard. Having learned that it is the part of a good rea ler to 
nt the thought and passion of discourse, and as each in 
his attempt, fulfils his own conception of an author, he is Belf- 
led, that he possesses the full power of the art. Hence, 
one reason why we find so much delusion on this subject. For, 
reputed 'good readers,' are often not merely negatively defi- 
cient; they are often positively bad : and perverse as it may 
seem, to the overbearing applauses of a majority, I have fre- 
quently gone to observe the faults of speakers, when called to 
some 'star' of elocution, even though that star was him- 
self a Teacher of the Art. Loud whoops and yells have always 
been the vocal delight of savage-: and noise of every kind is 
the pastime substitute for reflection in ignorant civilization : so 
an exaggerated and consequently striking character of tie 
constituents of speech, is always most agreeable to the unin- 
Btructed ear. 

Fifth. The manner of changing the pitch from oik 1 degree 
to another, above or below it, in the diatonic melody, was shown 



576 FAULTS OF READERS. 

in the eighth section. An inability to command the radical 
change, not only prevents variety of intonation, but embar- 
rasses a reader in passing from a very high or very low pitch, 
when he has improperly set out in either. Speakers sometimes 
descend so far, as to leave no voice below the line of current 
melody, to allow an audible execution of the last constituent of 
the cadence. In this case, they are conscious of the feeble and 
unsatisfactory effect of their intonation, without perceiving the 
cause of it, and being able to apply the remedy. With a know- 
ledge of the proper melodial progression, and of the degrees 
through which the cadence descends, the fault here pointed out 
may be avoided. 

We noticed formerly, that a reader, with a good ear, has a 
sort of precursive perception of the falsette, which enables him 
to turn from it, when his melody is moving near the summit of 
his natural voice. A similar anticipation of the lowest note, 
warns him to keep his cadence within the limit of distinct 
articulation. 

Sixth. The use of the protracted radical, or protracted van- 
ish, instead of the equable concrete, is one of the widest devia- 
tions from the characteristic of speech. For, a proper diatonic 
melody consists of an equable movement through the interval 
of a second, with an agreeably varied radical change through 
the same space ; the current being occasionally broken by 
wider equable intervals, and by different forms of stress, as the 
subject may require these additions upon individual words. 

Inasmuch as this fault includes that of long quantity, it is 
not often heard in the hasty pronunciation of common life. I 
have however, met with a slight degree of it in a phlegmatic 
drawler. Public speakers overwrought by excitement, and 
straining their throats to be heard 3 I say, straining their throats, 
instead of energizing their voices, are most liable to this error 
of intonation. Some cases of this fault are connected with a 
monotonous current melody, and a very defective management 
of the cadence. I heard it under the form of the protracted 
radical, along with other heinous offences against good elocu- 
tion, in one of the public's ' great Actors.' It was most re- 



FAULTS OF READERS. .",77 

markable in his endeavor to »ive long quantity to short sylla- 
bles ; as in the following words of Macbeth. 

Canst thou not m — inister to a m — ind diseased ; 
PI — uck from the m — emory. 

I have here set a dash after the letters on which he continued 
the protracted radical, until it suddenly vanished in the termi- 
nation of the syllable. The Actor's fault was the erring exer- 
cise of a vocal instinct. He felt obscurely, the need of long 
quantity for the purpose of expression ; but being one of those, 
who having some animal excitability, no education, little intel- 
lect, and an inverse proportion of vanity : are always looking 
upon themselves as the centre of applause, it did not occur to 
him, that the pronunciation of a mutable syllable, might be de- 
formed by prolongation ; and that a subtonic at the beginning 
of a syllable, makes no part of the equable concrete ; two points 
of knowledge that would long ago have been prepared for his 
ear and tongue, if there had been in the Histrionic art, more 
observation and reflection -» with less reliance on the dream of 
' Identity,' and the fatal delusion of ' Inborn Genius.' 

nth. The fault of melody we are now about to consider, 
is somewhat related to the last described misuse of the pro- 

I notes. It includes some other forms of intonation, 
proper to song : the whole being confused in such a manner 
with the equable concrete, as to destroy every design <>f* speech, 
and to furnish, even beyond Eccitative, the ultra example of 
vocal deformity. 

In the history of man, there is nothing more indefinite than 

tions of the voice: still there is reason to believe: this 
deformed melody is the same as the Puritanical whine, affected 

i rally in religious worship, in England, above two hun- 
dred years ago, and which lias been changed t<> other faults 
scarcely less censurable, in the pulpit of the present day. The 
Boci< v of Friends alone have retained it as a general practice : 
and it will not be regarded as either idle or invidious, t<> l<x»k 
into the structure of this most remarkable intonation, by the 
light of our preceding analysis. 



578 FAULTS OF READERS. 

I first give the notation of tl^s melody, and will afterwards 
particularly explain it. 

I heard a voice from lieav'n saying, write, 



^ p t o°^ Q| cT^Pl 5fc 



bless — eel are the dead who die in the Lord. 



^€h^0 P ^ @ H o ^f 4 ■ 



I have spoken of the Minor Third as belonging to the plain- 
tive scale of song. A melody founded on a current, even of 
the equable conerete of a minor third, has that peculiar cha- 
racter which forbids its use in speech. Now the above notation 
is, with a few exceptions, a melody of minor thirds, not in the 
equable concrete, but in the note of song ; and its monotonous 
whine is produced by the drift of that offensive intonation. 

Upon this staff, let the third be minor. Then the first and 
second syllables are protracted vanishes upon a concrete minor 
third. A, and voice, are protracted radicals to a concrete 
descent of the same interval. From, is a protracted radical to 
the rising interval of a minor third. lieav'n, is a minor third 
of the same form with voice. The two syllables of saying, are 
equable concretes, respectively, of an upward and downward 
tone. The rest severally resemble those already described ; 
except who, which begins with a protracted radical to a direct 
wave of the minor third, and terminates in a protracted vanish, 
on its downward constituent. 

In the execution of this melody, there is besides the general 
effect of a disagreeable and monotonous song, a peculiar and 
striking contrast, from the various changes among these different 
forms of intonation. The most extraordinary liberties are 
taken with quantity. The long however, as necessary for 
the note of some, predominates. No distinction is here made 
between immutable, and indefinite syllables : the short are pro- 



FAULTS OF READEBS. 576 

longed to any extent ; and both the long and the short are 
divided; one portion is given to the protracted radical or 
van isii, the other to the concrete : as in fro-m and di~e. I have 
introduced the equable concrete of speech among the protracted 
notes, and have employed the diatonic cadence to exemplify 
those abrupt and rousing changes of intonation, sometimes 
made in the course, and at the close of this fantastic and sing- 
ing melody. I do not further describe its varieties, in the use 
of the above named constituents, together with the tremor, and 
the wider intervals that may be combined with them ; having 
shown enough to furnish a plan for self-examination and 
amendment. 

Should those who are accustomed to this melody ask 3 why it 
may not be employed, if by habit agreeable, and reverenced by 
association with the occasions of its use; I answer j that, 
throwing aside taste, as arbitrary, and regarding usefulness 
alone, it has no fitness for its intended purpose, and does not 
accomplish the attainable ends of speech. By speech we com- 
municate our thoughts and passions; and in the duties of reli- 
gion, there are motives and zeal, to do it with the most forcible 
means <>f persuasion and argument. So far as the voice is con- 
cerned, these means lie principally in the energy and expression 
of intonated emphasis; but in this remarkable melody, the 
designs of a just and varying intonation arc counteracted by 
the almost continued impression of a plaintive song ; or are 
I in purpose by the unmeaning obtrusion of unexpected 
changes. How can the states of mind which direct a dignified 
fulness of voice, for the encouraging descriptions of blessedness 
and glory, be represented by the trembling voice of distress? 
How can the positive conclusions of truth, and the wonder at 
almighty power, requiring the downward concrete, be enforced 
by the shrillness of a perpetual cry? How can we particularize 
the mental state of supplication, by the semitone, if we 
equally employ it in the threats of vengeance'." And with 
what force can we represent interrogation, if the wider inter- 
nals instinctively allotcd to it, arc so often unmeaningly heard 
in the voice ? 



580 FAULTS OP HEADERS. 

Whoever regards the words of ordinary song, knows how 
emphasis is there confounded. It is still less clear and correct 
in the kind of melody we are now considering. 

I have thus made the strongest representation of this fault. 
It is sometimes heard in a more moderate degree, especially in 
the voices of women ; consisting of a slight protraction of the 
vanish, on all the long quantities of discourse. 

This singing melody, as delivered in the public Meeting- 
house, by men, as well as women, is generally of a high or 
piercing pitch ; this being the means of audibility usually em- 
ployed by persons of uncultivated voice. 

Of Faults in the Cadence. Speech is particularly liable to 
faults in the successions of the radical pitch of melody, and of 
the cadence. Even the best readers do not seem to have acci- 
dentally reached an attainable variety, in the execution of the 
current, and the close of discourse. Faults in the cadence are 
however the most striking. 

We can assign a cause for the frequent failures upon this 
point. 

Whoever closely observes the character of speech, in common 
dialogue, must perceive that the earnest interests which govern 
it, the sharp replications and interruptions of argument, and 
the piercing pitch of mirth and anger, exclude in a great mea- 
sure, the terminating repose of the cadence. This is particu- 
larly the case with children and the ignorant, who having no 
motive either of action or speech, except interested curiosity 
and selfish passion, rarely employ any other than the wider and 
more expressive intervals of intonation. When therefore a 
person first undertakes to read, with the serious purpose of a 
dignified elocution, the impassioned habit is too inveterate to be 
at once laid aside 3 and a disposition to keep up the colloquial 
characteristic of speech, extending itself to the place of the 
cadence, defers for a long time, the ability to give with pro- 
priety and taste, the more composed and the graver intonation 
of the terminative phrase. 

Faults in the execution of the cadence are various. The most 
remarkable instance within my memory, is that of a clergyman, 



FAULTS OF READER-. 581 

who in an address of fifteen minutes' duration, never, to my 
observation, made a cadence j not even at his final period. The 
audience were notified to sit down, by his terminative . I 
not through the proper indication of the close by his voice. 

Even those who have the ability to make a cadence are in- 
fected by the next fault to be mentioned. 

I described ten forms of the cadence. This was done to point 
out all the distinctions that may be critically made by an accu- 
rate ear, and may perhaps be regarded in some future school of 
elocution. For present purposes of instruction, we may parti- 
cularize the Feeble, the Duad, the Triad, and the Prepared 
cadences. These are quite sufficient for the ordinary purposes 
of reading 3 and vocal skill can always effect an interchangea- 
ble variety of them, in the succession of periods. The next 
fault then consists in a repetition at every pause, of the same 
kind of cadence, and that generally the full form of the triad. 
This fault is increased by common punctuation, which often sets 
a period at places, where the voice should be only suspended 
by the phrase of the downward ditone. A want of nicety too 
in varying the cadence according to the indication of the close, 
is a very general fault : for there is great clearness given to 
discourse, by the just discernment, that assigns a less reposing, 
or the feeble cadence, to loose sentences, or doubtful periods, 
and the full and prepared, to the end of a paragraph or 
chapter. 

I once heard an Actor of high character use, and not unfre- 
quently, what we formerly called a false cadence; thai 
descent of the third by radical change; the Becond constituent 
of the Triad being altogether omitted. This false cadence is 
sometimes made on a wider discrete interval; the voice Buddenly 
falling a fifth or even an octave, if the pitch has been high 
enough to allow these descents. 

Some persons are in the habit of making the cadence in a low 
and almost inaudible pitch. In this case a want of prospective 
reach in the ear, prevents a reader from hitting the precise 
place for his cadence. One who has not this skill, may indeed 
know the period-pause is at hand, and that the voiee should 



582 FAULTS OF READERS. 

descend ; but ignorant at what point he ought to begin, and 
under fear of falling precipitately upon the close, he prepares 
for it too soon. A downward second or ditone is first made, 
and some instinct preventing him from adding the next tone 
below, by which the cadence would be completed before its 
time, he adds a monotone, and again tries a downward ditone. 
In this manner he descends, till with an enfeebled voice, the 
cadence is made on the three final syllables. The process here 
described is not indeed continued through many words ; most 
readers would in that case soon exhaust their pitch. Yet this 
does sometimes happen ; for the voice by this shelving course, 
is at last brought down to a husky quality, and almost to an 
inaudible pitch. 

Of Faults in the Intonation at Pauses. Under the pre- 
ceding head, we described the forms and effect of false intona- 
tion, at the close of a period. There are besides, certain 
sub-jmuses within the limits of a sentence, variously dividing it 
into members or portions, called in our account of rythmus, 
pausal sections. To the eye, these are separated by the com- 
mon marks of punctuation, representing the duration of the 
pause. Yet this temporal rest alone is not sufficient in all 
cases, to prevent misapprehension of the meaning in discourse. 
The comma and the period denote respectively, the least and 
the greatest degree of separation ; and these with the interme- 
diate sectional divisions, constitute the whole purpose of the 
temporal pause. Intonation however, performs an important 
part at these subdivisions. For the several pausal sections are 
variously related to each other ; and these relations, in the 
degrees of connection and separation, are shown by the united 
means of the temporal rest, and the phrases of melody. In 
the twelfth section, we learned what phrases are proper for 
thus connecting and separating the subdivided meaning of a 
sentence. Those who, with the light of our principles, may 
hereafter look into this subject, will perceive the fitness of the 
appropriation there made ; and will moreover be struck by the 
violations of grammar, and of the rule of variety, so commonly 
heard among speakers ; some of whom set a rising third or 



FAULTS OF READERS. 583 

fifth at most of the sub-pauses, and even at the period itself. 
These improprieties must necessarily be frequent, from the 
character of the phrases of melody 3 and consequently from 
the manner of applying them, being unknown. The reader, I 
would fain believe, can now forebear the several faults that 
might occur under this head ; for certainly the purpose of 
speech will frequently be obscured, if a falling ditone or tri- 
tone should be applied to that pause, where a continuative 
syntax calls for the monotone or the very reverse of these 
downward phrases. 

Of Faults in the Third. The third is properly employed 
in the moderate forms of interrogation, and in conditional 
phrases. Some readers however, execute the whole current 
melody in the rise of this interval. To those who recognize 
the uncolored dignity of the diatonic melody, this current of 
the third, has the striking effect of a continued interrogative 
interval, which renders it unfit to be the ground for expressive 
speech, and while its improper use as a Drift makes it monoto- 
nous, its similarity to the wider emphatic intervals weakens 
their effect, when required in its course. It is sharper in pitch 
than the diatonic melody, and consequently wants its dignity 
of character. I have heard persons with this fault try to read 
Milton, and Shakspeare, and the declaratory parts of the 
Church-service, and always, as appeared to me, without suc- 
cess. The current of dignified utterance must always consist 
of the wave of the second, on long quantities. No simple 
flpward concrete can effect it; though the rise of a wide inter- 
val may be occasionally employed for emphasis, in the gravest 
drift of the diatonic wave. 

It is a fault in the third, even when the whole current is not 
made by that interval j to form all the emphases with it. This 
likewise gives a sharpness and monotony to speech; for one of 
its proprieties as well as beauties, consists in a variation of 
emphasis: and we pointed out, in its proper place, the abun- 
dant menus for this variety. 

A current melody of the third in place of the second, IS 
principally offensive by its monotony; for the wider intervals, 



584 FAULTS OF READERS. 

as we learned in the section on Drift, will not bear continued 
repetition. 

Of Faults in the Fifth. The interval of the fifth is some- 
times improperly made the current concrete of melody : the 
peculiar effect of the intonation being most remarkable in 
emphatic places. It is a less frequent fault than the last, and 
is more commonly heard in women. Its monotony is still more 
impressive than that of the third ; the whole melody having to 
a critical ear, the effect of an interrogative sentence. 

It is a less remarkable fault, when only the emphases of a 
diatonic melody, are made by the fifth. This too has its 
sharpness and monotony ; and I am sure the reader will be 
sufficiently guarded against this fault, by keeping in mind the 
ample resources of the voice, for a varied emphasis. 

Those who thus misplace the third, and fifth, are apt to carry 
them into the cadence. Such readers end many of their plain 
declarative sentences with the characteristic intonation of a 
question. 

I might point out a similar error of place in the octave ; 
though it is of rare occurrence, and only heard in the piercing 
treble of women. Some persons cannot put a question in the 
subdued and dignified form of the third or fifth, but always 
give it in the sharp intonation of the octave. 

Of Faults in the Downward Movement. Faults of the 
downward concrete, consist in not giving the emphasis of 
downward intervals in their just extent ; in not applying them 
properly or at all, to exclamatory sentences, and to certain 
grammatical questions that require a downward intonation. 
An improper use of the downward intervals is sometimes cha- 
racteristic of a morose and saturnine temper, in persons who 
having no grace within themselves, have no voice of complais- 
ance for others. 

Of Faults in the Discrete Movement. Of defects in the 
management of the radical change of the second, in the dia- 
tonic melody, we have already spoken. Precipitate falls of 
the third, fifth, and octave, sometimes occur in the cadence of 
children and others, while learning to read. Some again are 



FAULTS OF READERS. 586 

unable to make those upward and downward radical ohai 

by which accomplished readers may hereafter accurately effect 

all the discrete transitions required for emphasis. 

Of Faults in the Wave. The wave of the second both in 
its direct and inverted form, is plain and dignified in its 
character, and therefore admissible into the diatonic melody as 
a drift. It is not so with the waves of wider intervals. They 
have their proper occasions as solitary emphasis ; whereas the 
continued repetition of them becomes a disgusting fault. The 
wave, commonly affected by a certain puling class of read 
is the inverted-unequal;; the voice descending through the 
second, and rising through the third, or fifth. This fault is 
most remarkable in reading metrical composition ; arising per- 
haps from our familiarity with the union of song and ver 
and from an association of the ear in reading, with the effect 
of the impressive intervals of its tune. Persons who read in 
this way, give a set melody to their lines ; certain parts of 
each line, as far as the emphatic words permit, having a prom- 
inent intonation of the wave. 

There is much of every form of the wave in conversation ; 
and the general character of daily dialogue often makes it 
appropriate there. I have heard the. colloquial twirl, even 
exaggerated by an Actress of great temporary reputation. Her 
style consisted of a continual recurrence of identical sections 
of melody, composed principally of the wider forms of the 
equal and unequal wave ; showing indeed a vocal pcrtness, and 
a sort of vivid familiarity^ but wanting the brilliant propriety 
of execution, due from a performer of High Comedy to the 
Author. 

Some actors, and readers are prone to the use of the double 
wave. They make it the vocal twirl for every state of mind, 
thereby denoting their want of a varied and just intonation. 
It is an impressive agent, and is therefore, with an erroneous 
idea both of its purpose and place, often introduced to give 
prominent effect to melody. It has rcstrictivcly, its prop 
sions; and let it be remembered : there is a sneering petulai 
h !.- character, totally inconsistent with dignity. 
38 



586 FAULTS OF READERS. 

Nothing is better calculated to show the importance of the 
plain ground of the diatonic melody, than the improper use of 
the wave. It includes the effects of faults in the third, and 
fifth, and consequently gives a florid and monotonous character 
to speech. When such striking intonation is set on every im- 
portant syllable, how shall we mark emphatic words, except by 
the utmost excesses in quality, time, or force ?* 

* The distinction, so often referred to in this essay, between the diatonic 
ground-work of melody, and the occasional expression of wider intervals judi- 
ciously employed upon it, is a great essential of effective and elegant elocution. 
According to our system, this distinction was an ordination, to meet the respec- 
tive demands of thought and passion. Without regard to it, no one can ever 
succeed in tragedy, or in other dignified uses of speech ; since the diatonic mel- 
ody alone, has the character appropriate to awe, solemnity, reverence, and grave 
deliberation. And although the Art of Speech, almost stone-deaf to the causa- 
tive agency, though not to the effects of intonation, has never yet been aware of 
this distinction j still the purposes of truth and beauty in the voice, have herein 
never been without a witness. For he who receives the instruction designed in 
this work, may, by now finding occasional instances of an unconscious use of 
the diatonic melody, believe, that being founded on a difference in the states of 
mind, it must, under a like unconscious use, have been heard in every age of 
cultivated speech. Its rarity in the voices of women, is one cause why so few 
among them, are able to rise to the tragic dignity of the stage ; although a 
pretty face, and other pretty attractions, may for a while serve them well 
enough, yet not over-well, in Comedy without it. They have so accustomed an 
undiscerning audience, and so habituated themselves, to a puling affectation, 
which consists in a current melody of the wider intervals and waves, the semi- 
tone, and minor third ; and are so ignorant or careless of their vocal duty, that 
they do not perceive, and therefore will not be told, one of the real causes of 
their frequent failure. As far as the obscurity of histrionic description and 
criticism allows the inference, it is not improbable that Mrs. Siddons, in the 
early part of her career, may, to an impressive degree, though all-unconscious 
of its construction, and its rules, have employed the diatonic melody. An inci- 
dent related by her biographer, Boaden, will perhaps, if elucidated by our 
analysis, lead us to this conclusion. 

On her first interview with Garrick, Mrs. Siddons, then Miss Kemble, 're- 
peated some of the speeches of Jane Shore before him. Garrick seemed highly 
pleased with her utterance, and her deportment ;' and 'wondered how she had 
got rid of the Old Song, and the provincial Ti-tum-tV 

All former criticism on intonation being, we may say unintelligible, we are 
left to discover, by the light of our analysis, what these terms, Old Song, and 
Ti-tum-ti mean. Now, as the construction and the plain yet peculiar effect of 
the diatonic melody of speech, are widely different from the construction and 



FAULTS OF READERS. 587 

Of Faults in Drift. The purposes both of truth and variety, 
in the art of Reading-Well, are effected by a delicate regard 

the more vivid effect of song; and as the wave, the wider concrete and discrete 
intervals, the semitone and minor third, with their impressive intonations, in 
speech, although far from being song, do yet more nearly resemble it in effect 
than the diatonic melody does ; and further, as the term and notion of the tri 
syllabic foot, Ti-ium-ti, seems to be a rythmical fancy of the ear, suggested by 
a sort of regular return of emphatic, but misapplied intervals, such as described 
in the text, under the present head of faults of the wave ^ I cannot avoid think- 
ing that Mrs. Siddons did, at this early period ; as I personally remember she 
did in after life ^ either in part if not altogether, unconsciously execute the just 
diatonic melody: and that Garrick, though aware of its peculiar effect, yet as 
ignorant of its analysis as his Call-boy, had no other means for describing his 
perception of its dignity than that of giving to a contrasted and strongly 
offensive style of utterance, the names of Ti-tum-ti, and Sovg. Nor can I avoid 
believing, that Garrick. who could thus perceive the plain or diatonic melody in 
others, must himself, without being aware of its structure and principles, have 
employed a well-marked expression of wider intervals, on the simple ground of 
a diatonic intonation ; though never with its finished propriety and grace, under 
the then limited and imperfect condition of his Art. 

Looking then to the two eminent instances now before us, I would indeed be 
loth to regard them under that condition, which Guido so satirically assigned 
to singers, unenlightened by Science; but which may with truth be assigned, 
though not unkindly, to many a Roscius, even with all his so called, profound 
and unwearied study and practice in his art ; 'Nam qui facit quod non sapit, 
defmitur bestia.' 'For he who acts without a plan, Resembles more the brute 
than man.' 

It may perhaps be asked ^ how I could well discriminate the diatonic melody, 
at the time I was ignorant of its constituents and construction. I did nut 
indeed, then know it by analysis, as it may now be known ; yet its peculiar 
i' mil dignity, in the personations of Mrs. Siddons, so caught my ear, 
that after nearly half a century, the effect of what I then heard, i- still a subject 
of my memory. And now that the Baconian system has, in its own words, 
warned us, not. to raise experiments solely upon experiments, nor works solely 
vpon works; but upon the '■forms' or general principles of works, to lay-down a 
broad foundation for progressive experiments; and since, hy farther showing 
the proper use of the senses and the mind, it taught, and has enabled me t«> 
thus far, some of the principles of speech ; I find the effect en my mem- 
ory, uf the intonation of this remarkable Actress, is altogether similar to that 
of thi" now known, and named Diatonic Melody. 

This is by no means, an after-thought of conceit; for by a like remembrance, 
of an Interlude of Dancing; then following her evenings in VblumntOf or in 
hady Macbeth, at Covent-Qarden \ I still retain at command, the just time and 
intonation of a simple Gavot-fclelody, though heard only there, and onlj 



588 FAULTS OF READERS. 

to the correspondence between the states of mind, and their 
vocal signs, in individual words ; and to the Drift, or con- 
tinuation of a given state of mind, and character of voice, 
through one or more sentences ; whereas a neglect of this 
adjustment, will, according to its degree, weaken the impres- 
sion of speech, or shock the ear and taste of an auditor. Some 
readers continue the same vocal drift through every change of 
thought and passion ; others vary the character of the utter- 
ance, without adapting it strictly to these changes. 

We have learned that the most complete close of a para- 
graph or chapter, is made by the prepared cadence ; and that 
certain vocal means, and changes in the structure of melody, 
formerly described, may be employed to prepare an audience 
for the beginning of a new subject; and thus, respectively as 
it were, to indicate the full consummation of the previous sec- 
tional or paragraphic pause. The neglect of a speaker on this 
point, may be considered a fault in partial Drift. 

As the reverse of this fault, we have the unexpected transi- 
tions from one style of utterance to another, without a corres- 
ponding change of subject. I once heard an actor, set the whole 
House into a hum of merriment, by making that answer of 
Jaffier to the conspirators j 

Nay by Heaven I'll do this, 

in the curling quaintness of the wave. The character of Jaffier, 
the solemnity of the juncture, and the purpose of his entrance 
among the conspirators, are all at variance with the levity, con- 
veyed by this sneering intonation. Severity of resolution is 
the ruling state of mind in Jaffier ; and this calls for the energy 
of stress, together with the positiveness of a downward empha- 
tic interval. And it seems to have been a sense of the ludi- 
crous, from a contrast between the seriousness of the Character, 
and the pertness of the player, that caused the merriment. 
Indeed the case, when considered, conveys an idea of the 
instinctive perception, and propriety of the Audience, and of 
the absence of both in the Player. They, although unconscious 
of the principle, laughed at what was laughable. He, in the 



FAULTS OF READERS, 589 

conceit of 'genius,' could not be serious at what was grave; 
and perhaps satisfied himself, that their laughter at the ridicu- 
lous, was to him, a complacent tribute of applause. 

I have tried in vain to find a term for the extraordinary 
transitions, sometimes heard on the Stage. They belong to the 
head of the faults of Drift : but we must speak of them as vocal 
pranks, without a name. I mean to designate, those abrupt 
changes from high to lowj from a roar to a whisper ; from quick 
to slow 3 harsh to gentle j from the diatonic melody to the chro- 
matic 3 from the gravity of long quantity, to the levity of sm <t. 
to the quick stress of anger and mirth, or to the rapid mutter- 
ings of a madman. 

We had here, some years ago, a celebrated foreign Player 
from whom I draw this picture ; though for impressive illustra- 
tion, perhaps slightly caricatured. His imitators, who have 

already disappeared, called themselves the school of : 

a blank now to be well filled up, as the school j of Ignorance 
and Outrage, with benches crowded by vociferating, I had 
nearly said '-Rowdy,' admirers. 

A system of elocution may be defended, on either of two dif- 
ferent grounds. The one, that it is a copy from nature : the 
Other, that it does artificially best answer the ends of speech. 
No apology for such flagitious transitions can be derived from 
either of these sources. I have seen persons under the highest 
excitement of natural, not theatric, passion, and changing from 
one degree and kind to another; but I have never heard any- 
thing even distantly like the harlequin-transformations of voice, 
above alluded to, and applauded on the Stage, except in a par- 
oxysm of womanish hysteria. On the other hand, supposing 
the practice to be founded on an artificial system; we would 
make no objection, provided it could accomplish by conven- 
tional agreement, all the expressive purposes of speech. But 
what reasonable plea can that system urge, which perverts all 
the beauty and frugality of rule; which destroys, by it* ; 
anomaly and abruptness, all the pleasures of habit, and anti- 
cipation; and takes from the line arts, the delight in IxuinuMcss 



590 FAULTS OF READERS. 

association, arising from the busy exercise of well-established 
knowledge. 

Where this fault of exaggeration does not arise from blunder- 
ing ignorance, or from slavish imitation, it is purposely assumed 
with the view to produce what the small vocabulary of drama- 
tic criticism, calls ' Effect.' The Actor being deficient in the 
means of that truth and variety of expression, which only a 
knowledge of the resources of the voice, not the practice of the 
Stage, can afford, tries to help-out his uninstructed ' Genius ' 
by breaking through the even tenor of an appropriate Drift, 
with some ear-starting stimulus or some unexpected collapse. 

We should however, do some Actors the justice to believe, 
that with a proper estimate both of nature and art, they must 
secretly disapprove of such things. Yet how shall we absolve 
them from the charge of submitting to what they must know to 
be only a blind conformity to the capricious fashion of ap- 
plause ; and of being ' willing to deceive the people because 
they will be deceived ;' the easy art and resource of weakness, 
with cunning ; and the wretched apology of ambition and 
knavery. It is the part of elevated intellect to undeceive the 
world, even by unwelcome truth ; to make all men at last bow 
down ; and to be the master of demonstration, instead of the 
slave of popular conceit. 

Faults in the Grouping of Speech. The Intonation at 
Pauses denotes the degrees of connection between the succeed- 
ing sections of discourse j and between related words, within 
the limit of each. The Grouping of speech is variously in- 
tended to keep these sections in a measure, independent of 
each other ; to unite the train of thought within these sections, 
when broken by expletives, or by grammatical inversion ; and 
to bring together on the ear, separated words, even from 
different sections. Thus the Temporal rest makes a distinct 
group of a section by dividing it from others. The Phrases of 
melody j, by the monotone, the rising ditone, and tritonej con- 
nect grammatical concords, when separated by intervening 
constructions. The Abatement groups as it were, within 
brackets of the voice and thus keeps together, what is heard 



FAULTS OF READERS. 591 

under a reduced, or piano form of force. The Flight limits to 
Itself, the sense of what is embraced in a hurried utterance. 

The Emphatic-tie and the Punctuative-reference respective! v. 
by stress and pause, group within the field of hearing, words, 
and phrases, separated in construction, from each other. 

Faults in grouping arise from not applying these several 
forms as their purposes require; and ignorance of their design, 
and appropriate use, cannot fail to mar the perspicuity of oral 
discourse. He who has a full knowledge of the means and 
efficacy of grouping, will, on this subject, be able with just 
principles, to criticise and correct the faults of others. 

Fault of Mimicry. In a previous page of this section, it 
was remarked, that imitations of speech, either serious, or for 
mirth, are generally copies of its faults. I am here to speak 
of the effect of Mimicry in corrupting the principles and prac- 
tice of vocal expression. 

Under the prevalent creed of the Old elocution, this purpose 
may need explanation. The creed is, that all who speak with 
a perception of the thought and passion of their subject, speak 
with propriety. Now nearly all persons both read and speak 
so differently from each other, that we plainly distinguish the 
intonations, joined with the other modes of the voice, in each 
individual. But it is intonation, with other modes, which 
constitutes the expression of speech: and we must allow that 
the individuals universally utter their own thoughts and pas- 
sions. This creed then carries with it the conclusion, that 
speech is not directed by a universal system of corresponds nee 
between the state of mind and the vocal sign-j but that each 
individual must have for his states of mind, a peculiar s; 
of signs, producing that distinguishable difference from all 
oilier-, which Ave perceive in both his reading and his speaking 
Voice. 

It would therefore follow, from the pretensions of this cre< d, 
that mimicry, by amusing itself with the peculiarities of all, BO 

far from being injurious to the powers of speech) musl en the 
contrary, tend to support and improve them. For, by this 
belief, all being supposed to speak their respective states of 



592 FAULTS OF READERS. 

mind correctly, while all speak differently, the mimic, who can 
assume the proprieties of each, must possess the faculty of 
acquiring the excellencies of all. It is well known, that the 
effects of mimicry depend on contrast 3 and the contrast in this 
case, must be made, with some standard in the human voice. 
But by the condition or consequence of the creed, the standard 
of each individual is his own individuality ; and thus the 
standard is destroyed by its endless variations. Mimicry then, 
though able to assume the vocal ability of all, cannot, from 
the want of a standard, assign to any one a comparative excel- 
lence, or superiority : and though it may, by universal imita- 
tion, add to its powers a superfluous flexibility, it cannot, from 
the want of this measure of excellence, improve or exalt itself. 
And as it must necessarily, from the vast amount of worldly 
falsehood and bad taste, be more frequently employed on vul- 
garity and exaggeration, than on truth and refinement, its 
constant tendency must be to error and degradation. 

Mimicry in speech is the exact, or caricatured imitation of 
its faults. It must therefore be founded on a perverted, or 
extravagant employment of the various forms of Quality, Time, 
Force, Abruptness and Pitch. Mimicry is the result of the 
ignorance and error of man, in the uses of his voice. With all 
his imitations j except they remind him of his own defects of 
body or mind, or of his want of dignity in the imitation 3 he 
cannot turn into ridicule, the unviolated law of nature within 
the whole range of the sub-animal voice. In the deformities, 
and errors of his own, he is the fit subject of his own contempt. 
Had the true and expressive system of that voice, been de- 
veloped and taught, there would have been, as in grammar, 
few faults, except upon the vulgar tongue ; and perhaps no 
mimicry, worthy of an intelligent smile, in speech. The order 
of Nature, with all things aright but untoward Man, has by 
its fitness, its accordance, its serious truth, and its beauty, 
excluded every cause of the Ridiculous from her works : and 
an elocution that elegantly obeys her laws, cannot be mimicked 
for the amusement of a discerning and respectful ear. 

Mimicry is not only founded on faults, but it contributes to 



FAULTS OF READERS. 

multiply and to confirm tlicm. It multiplies faults, by con- 
founding those just perceptions, that might discern and pre- 
vent, or correct them ; and it confirms them in the mimic, by 
giving to a habit of distortion, the force of second nature in 
his voice. Mimicry weakens and perverts the powers of ex- 
pression, by confusing its signs, in representing the same state 
of mind, as differently expressed by different individuals : when 
in common consistency it should always have the same appro- 
priate vocal sign. One cause of our not readily perceiving the 
true system of speech is, that the ordained association of sign 
and >tate of mind, is in the corrupt practice of the greater 
part of mankind, confounded, by the same state being expressed 
in so many different ways. How much then, must the mimic 
be at fault, and the whole purpose of his speech be perverted, 
by the endless variety and exaggerated degree of false expres- 
sion, constantly upon his ear ? Few mimics are able to rise to 
the character of dignified utterance ; and when they even 
seriously imitate accomplished speakers, it is always in their 
accidental defects ; for these only give the amusing charac- 
teristics. Some of the better class of Actors possess a power 
of mimicry : but as far as I have known them, they have 
wanted a high refinement and finish, in the truthful representa- 
tion of thought and passion. And so it ought to be : and 
will be regarded hereafter, if in our present history there is any 
conformity to the wise and efficient laws of Nature. 

Ainl here let me not unmindfully say, that if observation 
had not, by accident, afforded me the light, and the den- 
tins offered system of the voice, I would not have dared, nor 
even thought, to touch the mantle of renown, that wraps the 
Histrionic character of the Immortal Garrick. But when I 
see him, in that Emblematic Portrait of his fame, equally 
affected to the Comic, and the Tragic Muse; and hear, that he 
avoid both by taste and habit, mask the expressive features of 
his elocution, by an exaggerated and distorted mimic - I 
grieve to think that my imagination musl lose a single ray, 
from the bright and welcome vision of Ins Ideal Perfection. 

Such, from its very character, must, to a greater or ] gs ex- 



594 FAULTS OF HEADERS. 

tent, be the effect of mimicry, even on the finest mould of 
nature in the unenlightened human voice. How far a full and 
accurate knowledge and use of all the means, ordained for 
truth and elegance of expression, with a perfect discrimination 
between the right and the wrong in speech, may enable an 
accomplished Actor habitually to practice the deformities, 
without infecting the graces of utterance, must be determined 
by the opportunities of future experience. At present, it is 
well to keep the tongue away from the contaminating company 
of its own unconscious faults. For it is with our voices, as 
with our morals ; the habit of doing only right, most effectually 
preserves us from wrong: and it is no less dangerous, to play 
with mischief in the one, than to amuse ourselves with mockery 
in the other.* 

An inquiry into the subject of mimicry, will afford a further 
view of the consistency of the whole science of expression, set- 
forth in this essay. For if correct and elegant speech requires 
the employment of the vocal constituents, in their proper 
places, in their proper successions, and in due proportion to 
each other, it will furnish, if the reader yet doubts, some sup- 
port to this recorded system, to find^ the violation of its rules, 
by a misplaced, or over-proportioned, or exclusive use of cer- 
tain of these constituents is productive of a palling monotony, 
or a grotesque caricature. 

Of Monotony of Voice. This is an old term in elocution ; 
but it is here used with a more extensive signification than 
formerly. It means in general, the undue continuation of any 
function of the voice. 

* In the early period of life, I had to a certain degree the power of mimicry : 
and the ability to imitate the human and sub-animal voice, has assisted me 
in discriminating by contrast, the graces of utterance, in recording many of its 
faults. Since the development of the vocal constituents, with a habitual prac- 
tice of the means, and experience of the effects, of a true, appropriate, and ele- 
gant speech, the readiness and precision of that mimicry is much impaired ; 
and in a measure lost : without however, the least diminution of acuteness, in 
the measurement of time and tune, when now in my seventy-fourth year, en- 
larging the Fifth edition of this Work. I cannot say how it would have been, 
had mimicry been a purpose of business or ambition. 



FAULTS OF READERS. 

can scarcely point-out an occasion, on which the simple 
rise of the second, or the diatonic wave, has this effect : for 
according to our system, these are properly the most frequent 
of the continuous styles of discourse. The use of the second, 
in place of another interval, ma}' sometimes be an error in 
expression, but we do not call it monotony. The chromatic 
melody, though a continuation of the impressive interval of the 
semitone, is not monotonous, if its plaintiveness is suited to the 
state of mind : but many other constituents, when spread over 
discourse, offend by this fault. Thus a repeated succession of 
the same phrases in the current ; the same kind of cadence, 
particularly if it frequently occurs ; a melody formed on the 
third, or fifth ; a restriction of emphasis to the third, or fifth, 
or octave ; a constant use of the accent and emphasis of the 
radical, the vanishing, or the thorough stress ; of the tremor; 
and of the downward wider intervals ; too free a use of remote 
skips in the radical change, both in the current, and the 
cadence j of the wider and unequal waves; with the protracted 
notes of song, may each become the cause of monotony. 
And it may be again remarked, that all constituents severally 
allotted to the rare occasions of emphasis, seem to be prote 
against the fault of undue repetition, not only by its violating 
the vocal rules for thought and expression, but by produ. 
at the same time, an offensive monotony. 

Of Ranting in Speech. This fault consists in the exc 
certain functions. These are loudness ; violence in the radical, 
and the vanishing stresses ; and in general, an over-doing of 
just expression, when united with unnecessary force. 

Qf Affectation in Speech, This consists in an imbecile per- 
version of the proper use of articulation, and of the intervals of 
pitch,, with a mincing awkwardness, that always attends the 
action- of personal conceit. 

Of Mouthing in Speech. This belongs properly to the head 

of the faults of articulation: and refers to deviation- from 
standard pronunciation; of which it is not my intention to 
Bpeak particularly. 



596 FAULTS OF READERS. 

Mouthing consists in the improper employment of the lips in 
utterance. 

Some of the tonic elements, and one of the subtonics are 
made by the assistance of the lips. They are o-we, oo-ze, ou-r, 
and m. When these abound it may, without precaution on the 
part of the speaker, lead to mouthing. All the other sub- 
tonics may be to a degree, infected with this fault. It slightly 
infuses the sound of the o-we or oo-ze into their vocality ; for 
the protrusion of the lips, gives something of this character 
even to a lingual element. Mouthing may be called a form of 
affectation. 

I might here give a particular description of the voices of 
Childhood and of Age : for these may be looked upon as faults, 
when compared with the full-formed, vigorous, and varied utter- 
ance of intermediate periods. Our analysis will enable an 
observant reader to discover their respective characters. He 
will find the voice of childhood to be high in pitch, vividly 
monotonous in melody, and defective in cadence, with nothing, 
except parental doting to reconcile the ear to its screeching 
intonation ; which in its piercing and untunable noise from 
mingling hundreds 'just let loose from school' is a nuisance 
well deserving the rod of a Correctional Police, in every com- 
munity that vainly hopes, by a little reading, writing, and 
arithmetic, to banish ignorance, raise up a commonwealth of 
wise and virtuous citizens, and to quiet the disorderly passions 
of mankind. He will find old age to be slow, with frequent 
pauses, feeble radical stress, tremulous, occasionally breaking 
into the falsette, and piping the childish treble in his voice. 

The faults thus enumerated, are more or less common among 
those who pass for good, and often the best Readers and Actors. 
When instruction shall be derived from the Natural Philosophy 
of speech, and not from the egotism of untaught ' genius,' nor 
the varying and contradictory examples it pretends to set- 
up for Imitation -» the defects and deformities of utterance from 
these sources, now equally prevalent in the higher and the hum- 
ble class of readers, will like the faults of grammar, be confined 
to the uneducated and the careless. 



FAULTS OF READERS. 

I have described the faults of speakers under general 

head-, and in their separate forms. They are heard in bad 
speakers, under all possible combinations : but the permuta- 
tions would defy every attempt towards a useful arrangement. 
The contemplation of the subject is therefore left as a task 
for the reader. 

Should the principles of this work ever prevail, and Speech 
hereafter become a Liberal and Elegant Art, it may be ima- 
ginedj the faults described in this section, as infecting the 
whole world of elocution, will have so far passed away, that the 
picture here exhibited, will seem to have been overdrawn. But 
when were the excellencies of Art, or Wisdom, or Worth, ever 
universal or even common ? There will always remain in this 
motly world, posterity enough of those who now defeat the 
designs of nature, and mar the mind-directed music and expres- 
sion of speech, to show to another age, that I may not unfairly 
have recorded, the almost universal prevalence of this deafness, 
and deformity, throughout the great family of their vocal an- 
■>. ;:c 

* Having endeavored to show, that the descriptions offered in this es-ay, are 
taken from nature, and thus might furnish the ground of a system for all times, 
and for all cultivated nations; and having further, shown that faults, being but 
a misapplication of the constituents of a just and elegant speech, must of 
necessity, be universally of a similar character, among those who disregard the 
principles of that just and elegant speech: I have only to add here, as it might 
perhaps be required, some support to this conclusion. 

During my residence at Rome, in the winter of eighteen hundred and forty- 
six — seven, I was present at an annual exhibition of the scholars of the 
ganda. From pencil-notes taken at the time, on the margin of a programme of 
the exercises, and briefly recording my perception of the character of the elocu- 
tion, I make the following summary. 

There were from fifty to sixty speakers, men and boys ; apparently from the 
age of twelve to five and twenty ; of various colors, visages, and languages : and 
from countries of different degrees of ignorance, and of civilization, between 
the longitude of eastern China, and that of the Allegheny mountains. 
each and all of these individuals must have had the respective forma <■(' their 
intonation, and of the other modes of the voice, determiued and fixed I 
habit in their native country; they could have undergone no material change 
in the Roman school. Yet the proprieties of speech, if any, and all its 
faults, whether in form, degree, or misapplied expression, wer 
those we have enumerated in the English voice. No matter, to what syllabic 



598 FAULTS OF READERS. 

In describing the faults of readers, and on other occasions in 
this essay, I have referred to eminent, as well as to exceptiona- 
ble examples, in the vocal practice of the Stage. The Actor 
holds both for purpose and opportunity, the first and most 
observed position in the Art of Elocution $ and should long have 
been our best and all-sufficient Master in its School. The 
Senate, the Pulpit, and the Bar, with the verbal means of argu- 
ment or persuasion almost exclusively before them, have so 
earnestly, or artfully pursued these leading interests, that they 
have not observed, nor indeed wished to observe, how far the 
cultivated powers of the voice might have assisted the honest or 
the ambitious purpose of their oratory. But with the Stage, 
speech is in itself, the means and the end of Histrionic distinc- 
tion ; for however the Actor may be unduly influenced by ap- 
plause, this applause is supposed to be attainable, only through 
the expressive powers of his voice. It has therefore been towards 
the Stage alone, that criticism has shown a disposition, for- 
mally to direct its vague and limited rules of vocal propriety 
and taste. The Stage however has not fulfiled the duties of its 
position ; for though holding the highest place of influential 
example in the art, and enjoying the immediate rewards of 
popularity, it has done little more than keep-up the tradition of 
its business and routine j, and tediously record^ the personal 
debut, engagements, retirement, and every sort of anecdote of 
its renowned Performers ; without one serious thought of turn- 
ing a discriminative ear to their vocal excellence, and thereby 

sound, or structure of language they had been born, there was collectively 
among them, the same vicious variety in the uses of time, force, quality, abrupt- 
ness and intonation, as with ourselves; and as with us of the Saxon, Celtic, 
Gaulish, and Teutonic tongues j one vast predominance of faults. Yet, while 
closely listening to the right, the wrong, and the peculiar, I heard nothing in 
form, or even in queerness or exaggeration, that I had not seemingly heard be- 
fore. In short, the destined swarthy wanderer of the Propaganda, with his 
aimless and chaotic efforts in speech, and the accomplished Queens of song 
from the Conservatorio, with their unconscious desecration, so to speak, of ex- 
pression in Recitative, are more nearly assimilated, in these vices of intonation, 
than their difference in complexion and in glory will allow the pride of the 
Opera to acknowledge. 



FAULTS OF READERS. 

affording available instruction, on the means of their Bu 
while its distinguished Performers themselves, through all 
generations, appear to us more culpably, in the condition of too 
many others in exalted stations, who have not so much desired 
to fulfil the trusts of their Stewardship, as to acquire wealth 
and influence and distinction for themselves.* 

For this particular state of Histrionic Art, there must be a 
cause 3 and as our analysis has enabled us to explain the causes 
of some faults that universally infect the voice, we may here 
properly inquire _; why elocution has not been able to assume an 
intelligent, systematic, and respected authority on the Stage. 
Speech is the audible sign of the logical powers of the mind, as 
well as of its individual ideas ; we shall therefore find, that the 
peculiar faults of the Stage arise from a somewhat sectarian, 
and mystic character of intellect in the Actor. I therefore 
devote a few remaining pages to the subject .-j 

Of the Faults of Stage-Personation. The most general and 
influential cause from which many of the faults of the Actor 
seem to arise, and under which, knowledge in his art has never 
been either communicable or progressive : is the delusive 
assumption, so fatal to a clear and practical use of the mind, 
that his purposes are effected by certain ' innate | 
' spiritual gifts ' independently of ail instruction ; that so far 

* Shortly after the publication of this work, I was asked by a friendly Judgej 
how I came to write it ; for he had supposed it would havebecu written by some 
Public Speaker. But Judges deliver opinions; and the whole line of historical 
Reports furnishes only a single Case-in-point, to my friend's supposition : for 
of all the Orators, Demosthene-e alone is said to have tried vocal instruction : in 
teaching himself by holding pebbles in his mouth. Yet the ' theory ' of the pro- 
cess seems to have been no better understood then than it is now ; since be 
never had a second scholar in the same pebble-way. And generally, it would 
be strange for an Orator to teach elocution, when he believes it to be a heaven- 
born gift, that cannot l>e taught. 

Though I have heard and heard-of, Great Speakers who have won i 

opinions by their 'silver tones;' I have always found, it was what th 
not how they said it, that set their party whippers in, beneath the ' Hotel-win- 
dow,' and around 'the table,' in a roar. True however it is, thai I 
neither write hooks on Elocution for others : m.r read books on Elocution to 
instruct themselves. 



600 FAULTS OF READERS. 

from being the result of the plain and universal rule of success- 
ful thought and action, the expression of his Enacted Character, 
like that vulgar idea of the ' fine madness ' of poetical inven- 
tion, is the effect of a peculiar histrionic c phrensy ' of passion, 
with the ' inspired embodiment' of its signs in the countenance 
and the voice. 

This mysticism of the school of Acting has, as I understand 
it, divided its eminent disciples into two Classes. The First 
has a sort of double existence, consisting, at one time, of its 
common animal attributes of motion, sensation and thought ; at 
another, of the ' spiritual ' representation of the language of the 
poet. In one of these lives, the actor prepares for his part, 
according to his own conception of it, or to the traditionary 
rules of the Green Room 3 and for his scenic relationships to 
the rest of the Company, goes to Rehearsal, with his everyday 
mind, speech, and apparel. This is the personal life of the 
actor. In the other life he is before the audience, and has 
entered into a ' spiritual existence ' with the poet. Here, all 
self-perception is lost ; he is sensible to nothing, and has only 
an indescribable idea of the commingling of his own enacting 
' soul,' with the rhetorical ' soul ' of his author ; thus entering with 
him into one co-efficient expression of gesture, countenance, and 
voice. The state of an actor, in thus losing his consciousness, 
in the metaphysical ' ideality ' of the character, is called Iden- 
tity. And as well as I can understand this bodily and mental 
condition, the actor seems to think, move, and speak in a pecu- 
liar kind of Trance.* 

* An Actor, or Personator on the Stage, whatever his fictional school may- 
teach, can no more, intellectually and passionately, believe or feel himself to 
be the character he represents, than he can, in ideal representation, feel the 
pain of his friend, or, in sensual imagination, taste the food that gratifies him. 
If he should in mind, for he cannot in person, be or appear to himself to be 
another, he must, in mind, cease to be himself: and therefore cannot, in thought 
and passion, become another, except, if even that is possible, in delirium or a 
dream. Nor is there the least necessity that he should in acting, appear to 
himself to be another, in order to act well. Wicked and foolish as man is in 
most of his affairs, it would be appalling to think -what he might be, if human 
nature had not been made, in all things and everywhere alike. We are there- 



FAULTS OF READERS. 601 

The Second Class, though altogether different in its character 
from that of Ifdentity, is no less mystical in its account of 
itself. But as I do not comprehend the account of that un- 
thinking and inexpressive histrionic machinery, by which an 

fore, by birth and education, identical with one another; without its being a 
peculiar effort of ' genius' in a Player to feign himself so . and this is the opinion 
of the world ; for we all know, what a social, moral, political, and religious 
commotion is produced by a single individual of name and station, who ques- 
tions conformity, and observes and thinks for himself. He is marked as a dan- 
gerous character. Difference from the rest of the world in observation and 
thought, which are the charm of life, is rare ; but in passion, which is almost 
the whole life itself of man, it is impossible. If by internal motive, or external 
impression, ideas are excited into passion, we must show or enact it, in like man- 
ner as it is done by others. For though there may be some variation of degree 
and character, the passion itself, in sensation, and outward effect is similar 
in all. 

It is not necessary then, to 'enter into ' or feel the passion of another; we 
are already in it, by a similar constitution ; and have only to feel and express 
it, as properly our own, when excited within us either by the voice of the orator, 
or the written language of the historian and the poet, 

In illustration, let us suppose an Actor to have the education, thought, pas- 
sion and physical means for expression, of the best of his class; and to enact 
the part of Hamlet, before the Ghost of his Father. He has then in his mind, 
the thoughts of doubt, disbelief, inquiry, and of the supernatural event before 
him. The passions or vivid ideas that affect and absorb, not entrance him, are 
horror, astonishment, reverence, affection, and revenge. These common 
thoughts and passions are, either from Nature or from habit, so at command, 
'that a man might play them ^ as Shakspeare analytically and truly describes 
it;; by 'forcing his soul to its own conceit,' not into Identity with the conceit or 
conception of another: for as far as they have been experienced, and no 
farther, can they be mentally known, and expressed. No one has felt them, in 
the case before us, with the vividness of life, but the supposed once-existing 
Hamlet: and therefore the Actor may raise within himself a certain form and 
degree of those thoughts and passions, but cannot become identical with Ham- 
let, even if good acting should require it. He is then only identical, so to 
speak, with himself, upon the experienced forms and degrees of his own passion 
and thought, 

The Actor's idea of Identity, compared with the plain phenomena of the mind 
and the voice, would seem to have arisen from one of these visionary \ 
btege-personationj either that the state of mind ascribed to a Character, is to 
be represented by the Actor being really excited to the exact stale of mind 
ascribed to that character, which is bat a metaphysical notion ; or by his trying 
to for/jet himself, and in thought and passion, to become, as if absolu 
other, which is a hopeless metaphysical task. 

39 



602 FAULTS OF READERS. 

Actor affects an audience, I shall, in noticing the subject, be 
obliged to quote the words of the initiated, who pretend to 
describe it. 

I find it has long been a question among Actors and Stage- 
critics 3 whether he who excites most passion in his audience, is 
necessarily excited and directed by passion within himself. 
This Platonic, or soul-dealing, and therefore disputatious and 
interminable question, seems so clearly, to have arisen from a 
belief in the i Spirituality ' of Expression, supported by a de- 
termined ignorance of the describable forms of the speaking 

How far, in the case before us, the Actor is to become identical -with the 
Poet, is another subject for consideration: and this leads to the inquiry, how 
far Shakspeare designed to identify himself in thought and passion with the 
thinking and suffering of the once-existing Hamlet. If a Poet should become 
identical as he thinks, with some pre-existing model, so to speak, and upon that 
identity, should draw the character from himself; the Actor, in identifying 
himself with the character, would necessarily become identical, so to call it, 
with the poet. I have nothing to say here, on what a poet might imagine of 
himself; for he may have his delusions, as well as the actor. With all respect 
however for the poet, even one in truth and greatness of thought, we maintain, 
that he, in no case becomes identical with the character he describes. How it 
may be with a character he altogether creates, if a poet ever did so create, I 
leave for poets, who work with ' transcendental spiritualities ' to decide. When 
the costume, together with the language of thought and passion of a Charac- 
ter, is assumed by the Actor ; and he has to move and to speak like that charac- 
ter, he might possibly seem to himself to have some slight reason for believing, 
against his senses, that he is the very character : like Christopher Sly in the 
Play, who, with so many persuaders towards his delusion, exclaims at last, 
' Upon my life, I am a Lord indeed.' But how can the poet find a point of ap- 
proach to similarity, much less enter into Identity with his character, either 
historical or created j when spreading his imagination for his task, he gradually 
and line by line, selects from its amplitude ; and roaming, in his associations, 
after everything, returns with a gathered choice of thoughts, characters, man- 
ners, imagery, and language : and all this effected in time, and succession, by a 
Shakspeare j only a high example here^ identical with his own classifying power, 
and the grace and grandeur of its taste. What has he, in drawing the character 
of Hamlet, to do with contracting himself into a fixed and momentary identity 
with such a passing and every-day personage as a former Prince of Denmark ? 

Leaving Identity then to its own Notional fate, the case seems to be^ that the 
Poet should, or does add what he pleases, to the original traits of a character 
furnished by history ; and the Actor adds what he has learned, to be the proper 
vocal-representation of a character furnished by the poet. 



FAULTS CF READERS. 603 

voice, and of their physical instrumentality in representing 
thought and passion, that I need not show, by our present light 
of analysis, in what manner it has contributed to prevent a 
progressive observation of the exact and beautiful co-relation 
between the mind and the voice. The maxim of Horace j ' if you 
wish me to weep, you must yourself first 'feel' your woes," has 
so far either convinced, or misled his readers, that, under either 
of these two influences, I would not have here introduced the 
subject of this confounding question, if I had not met with the 
following confounding attempt to announce it. 

' The actor of an opposite school,' says the Autobiography of 
an Actress, chapter thirteen, i if he be a thorough artist, is 
more sure of producing startling effects. He stands unmoved 
amidst the boisterous seas, the whirlwinds of passion swelling 
around him. He exercises perfect command over the emotions 
of the audience ; seems to hold their heart-strings in his hands, 
to play upon their sympathies, as on an instrument ; to electrify 
or subdue his hearers by an effort of volition ; but not a pulse 
in his own frame, beats more rapidly than its wont. His per- 
sonifications are cut out of marble ; they are grand, sublime, 
but no heart throbs within the life-like sculpture. Such was 
the school of the great Talma. This absolute power over 
others, combined with perfect self-command, is pronounced by 
a certain class of critics, the perfection of dramatic Art.' And 
then, to show the difference between the actor who draws from 
the depth of his identical ' soul,' and him who only appears to do 
so, we have the following fact. ' I have acted with distin- 
guished tragedians, who after some significant bursts of pathos, 
which seemed wrung from the utmost depths of the soul, while 
the audience were deafening themselves, and us, with their 
frantic applause, quietly turned to their brethren, with a 
comical grimace, and a few muttered words of satirical humor, 
that caused an irresistible burst of laughter.' The reader, if 
he looks for meaning and precision in language, must say for 
himself, what all this account of Great Acting means, whether 
in the school of Identity, or of Talma. To me, it conveys not 
a single definite idea of the kinds, degrees, purposes, and effects 



604 FAULTS OF HEADERS. 

of thought and passion, nor of the character and management 
of the personal and vocal signs that express them.* 

* In addition to this visionary attempt to describe the manner of an accom- 
plished Actor, by transforming him into a ' stoic ' of the Stage, ' a man without 
a tear;' and still further to justify our opinion of elocutionary discrimination, 
I select from a fashionable authority of the day, the following attempt, of a 
somewhat different character, but quite as unintelligible ; and showing that de- 
lusion of the mind which at times, overcomes us all when with words alone, we 
make a picture to ourselves, wherein no one else can recognize the representa- 
tion of a clear idea of things. 

Madame de Stael, whom I quote at second hand, from an English writer 
somewhere, speaks of Talma in these words : ' There is in the voice of this man' 
a magic which I cannot describe ; which from the first moment, when its 
accent is heard, awakens all the sympathies of the heart ; all the charms of 
music, of painting, of sculpture, and of poetry ; but above all, of the language 
of the soul.' 

It is always of great importance, to distinguish between a particular explana- 
tion of an object or action, and the self-absorbed writer's description of his own 
thoughts and feelings upon it : a point neglected in nine cases out of ten, in 
all past and present histrionic criticism. If a writer, in the selfish agonies of 
his own delights, and in the vagueness, of his transcendental abstractions, de- 
clares that the manner of an Actor, ' cannot be described,' the reader who is 
obliged to rely altogether on description, is not to be reprehended, especially 
when there is 'soul and magic' in the case, if he can have no idea of it. In 
general, as a reasonable appendage to such a rhapsody as the preceding j a 
writer, after acknowledging his inability to explain the thing itself, should at 
least, attempt to describe what he means by his own idea of it; a task perhaps 
still more difficult. 

It is my misfortune never to have heard the celebrated Talma. Nor has that 
loss been otherwise supplied : for with due respect to the memory of an Actor 
whom I did not know, I would fain not ascribe to him a florid and outrageous 
intonation of wider intervals and waves, that I once heard from a declaimei*, 
who was said to be his pupil and imitator: and all the descriptive terms I have 
met with, in critical eulogies on his elocution, have not given me the least idea 
of his knowledge and management of the voice, whatever that may have been : 
while the vague opinions and the egregious misjudgments among the few as 
well as the many, on subjects like this^ together with what I know by our 
principles, to be exaggerated intonation of French Tragedy^ would leave me 
equally open to belief, or to doubt ^ were a question on this point to be raised 
on the reality of the merit universally ascribed to him. 

If this declaration should shock the partiality, I do not say impeach the 
judgment, of an admirer, it may perhaps moderate his revolting astonishment, 
when he has studiously read this little volume, and compared it with the leaves 
whence it was copied, in the great Biblos of Nature, always open for reference, 
before him. 



FAULTS OF READERS. C05 

In seeking instruction from others, not only in philosophy, 
but in the higher poetry j for this has taught me much even of 
physical nature, and more of the human mind 3 I have so accus- 
tomed myself to regard the simple truth-prints of traceable 
description, that my comprehension is often at fault, in the 
trackless pursuit of a metaphysical meaning ; whether in the 
mischievous visions of Plato, with his ' arithmetic mediums,' 
and his ' procreations of the soul ;' in the equally incomprehen- 
sible, though far less rhetorical and methodic dreams of his 
later pupils, Jacob Behmen and Emanuel Kant ; or in the unas- 
signable ideas of histrionic principles and criticism. But -while 
we may be unable to follow the mystic notions of the schools of 
Acting, and to say how far they go 3 it is not so difficult, with a 
little patience on the part of the reader, to inform, or remind 
him whence they are derived. 

The Greeks, unfortunately in some things our teachers, re- 
ceived so much of their Philosophical Fiction from Egypt and 
the East, that it is impossible to say, to what extent they in- 
vented, or how far they only altered and dresscd-up the fable : 
yet it is certain, that having contrived, or adopted the impo- 
sition, they afterwards blindly went along with it. It was 
according to the vain and groping purposes of the Greek philo- 
sophers, that while they desired to know the truth, they could 
not find a metaphysical, and would not take the plain perceptive 
way, to learn it. Observing how much time and labor were 
necessary for acquiring a knowledge of the frame and laws of 
nature, by what appeared to them a tedious use of the senses, 
they resolved to accomplish it more easily by a 'pure intellec- 
tion of the soul.' In this imaginative process, assuming, 
according to the human method of Design and Construction, 
that the world was made from an ideal design, or what they 
called a Pattern-Form of the world previously existing in the 
mind of the Creator ; and that the mind of man, being made 
in the image of the Creative-Mind, was thus a humble finite 
offspring of its all-glorious infinity: And further, observing j 
for they did add an allowed mite of experience to their fictions : 
really observing, 1 say, the human mind to be capable of mi- 



606 FAULTS OF READERS. 

limited improvement, they thereupon fancied, that in abstract- 
ing itself from the uninstructive and contaminating company 
of the senses, as well as from all other disturbing influences of 
this mortal life, it might, by a long and contemplative exercise 
of its own powers on its uncorrupted self, hopefully ascend 
towards the Creative Mind, and reach at last, its Parent-state 
of intellectual perfection, and immortality : that the Mind thus 
purified, returning to its omnicient Father, and being made 
partaker of his knowledge, might come at last, though still 
residing within an earthly form, to behold his pattern of crea- 
tion, and thus, by access to the constructive designs, be able to 
comprehend the plan, the purpose, and the workmanship of all 
things. This process of Contemplation, was a product, and 
part of what the Greeks termed their Metaphysics, or the sub- 
lime Abstraction of the First Philosophy ; now indeed to us, 
first and greatest in fictional pretension, but last and least, in 
usefulness and truth ; and which, if not originally designed to 
impose on ignorance, did subsequently pervert the mind to 
that state of theoretic credulity, by which it still imposes on 
itself. 

It was this, together with other distracting imaginations of 
the First Philosophy, that so early and so fatally confused and 
corrupted the now, alas ! irrestorable simplicity of the Christian 
Religion ; a religion intended by its Author to be practically a 
general moral blessing ; and 3 in discarding the quarrelsome 
notions, and verbosity of the Grecian School 3 to embrace an 
uncontentious Logic, with its decisive meaning of Yea, or Nay, 
for those who have ' ears to hear ' unworried truth : not a reli- 
gion of Platonic figments, and Aristotelian quibbles, for those 
who deafen their perceptions to the unarguing brevity of these 
two short verdict-words of Belief or Denial ; and who by re- 
jecting this unsophistic, this all-sufficient, this conclusive, this 
practical, and this peaceful Logic of the Original Christianity, 
have, with a heavy responsibility for their evil doing, given 
themselves up, universally and world-without-end, to doctrinize, 
to wrangle, and to hate. 

It was this which withdrew the Platonic Pietist from the 



FAULTS OF READERS. 607 

visible world, to contemplate with inward but with filmy eves, 
his own fanatic selfishness ; thereby to raise himself to a com- 
munion with angels and saints, at the right hand of his maker ; 
and to proclaim, with audacious triumph, his accomplished 
Beatitude. This, which led the Hermit and the Monk, to Pla- 
tonic war against the senses ; to retreat to the savage wilder- 
ness, and the Cell, before the overpowering civilization of their 
truth ; and to seek a refuge at last, by trying to think, and to 
mortify themselves into Heaven. The Greeks began their 
philosophical but foolish purpose, with only disregarding the 
Logic of the Senses. The religious Anchorite, following up 
his Platonic creed, ended with the Impious attempt to thwart 
the purpose of his God, in ordaining its supremacy. 

It is the idea of this irreligious sundering of heaven from the 
universe of sensible things, that ' God has joined together,' 
which still haunts the narrow-minded Bigot ; who under the 
venerable authority of his Pagan philosophy, continues to sepa- 
rate the senses from contemplation : but which, in the fulness 
of Avisdom, and of works, the beneficent Bacon, in mental 
saviourship, has taught us to reunite. It is this Contempla- 
tion, still uncontrolled by sense, and thus falling into visions, 
that enables every new Sectarian Leader, to imagine his own 
way to the will of his Maker, and to bring back from Ins own 
egotistical invention, another, and still another message of 
grace ; and thus to overfill the world with discord and with 
dreams. 

It is a modification of this system, that makes the Physician 
of Every School, pretend to see with his mind's eye, and that 
a blind one, those fictions of invisible causation in the human 
body, which produce the infinite succession of quarrelsome 
Speculations, the ever-varied Nomenclature, and the never- 
satisfying Practice of his Dogmatic Art ; yet so inseparable 
from the weakness and indecision, always co-existent in the 
mind, with fictional and fashionable changes in opinion. 

It is to the universality of* this vice of thinking and believing 
without the Mastership of tin- senses, that, according t<> <>nr 
ignorance, or our ill use of knowledge, we owe the wildness of 



608 FAULTS OF READERS. 

Grecian Spiritualism, and of natural philosophy, still imposed 
upon usj in the dates and postponements of Millennial Pro- 
phets ; in conjuring-down the Eapping Phantoms of the dead; 
and in the Epicurean doctrine of atoms, revived in modern 
chemistry, with no other prospect than that of giving way in 
time, to some new supposition. 

And finally, it is a view of this Vice that will discover the 
source of that absurd ' idealism ' of the Actor, and of his self- 
sufficient metaphysical 'genius' in his attempt to describe his 
own conception of his characters, and of himself. 

If there is no reason for a work, reason being here, only 
the adaptation of means to an end, there can properly be 
neither beginning nor end to the work ; and if there are not 
good reasons, there can be no excellence. Nature certainly 
has the best reasons for her work, and although she never tells 
them,' except through her spontaneous actions, or through 
experimentally-solicited signs, she does not always prevent 
our finding them out. An Actor may have good reasons with 
himself for all his endsj and some system for self-instruction; 
but as he never has satisfactorily told them, we must, as in the 
case of nature, be contented, if he does not prevent our efforts 
to ascertain them. Without therefore positively asserting j he 
has no means of instructing himself, or of being instructed, 
beyond his common school of Imitation, we may, if unable to 
discover his reasons or principles, particularly on the subject 
of the voice j be allowed to state our view of the causes why, 
with an exception of some local routine, and the business of 
the stage, he has none, above the instincts of gesture, counte- 
nance, and voice, common to him and the rest of his company. 

One influential cause, affecting at large, the whole power and 
purpose of the Actor, though not chargeable to him alone, and 
which encourages this mediocrity, if indeed it does not produce 
it j is the too frequent absence, from a public audience, of those 
watchful Masters, Knowledge and Taste ; masters who make 
greatness, wherever they rule, because they will have nothing 
else ; and who in passing judgment on the faults and merits of 
an actor, teach him at the same time, to know himself. This 



FAULTS OF READERS. 009 

however, is a general cause, arising from a neglect of instruc- 
tion, common to the Actor and his audience. But leaving this 
point for the consideration of others, we will here briefly en- 
deavor to show particularly, not only why he has not a deep 
and thorough knowledge of very important requisites in his 
art, but why the circumstances which affect him, render it 
almost necessary that it should be so. 

In the First place, then, the vocation itself of an actor is apt 
to over-occupy, and thereby thwart any broader purpose of his 
mind, with memorial efforts upon words j and with a perpetual 
and varied succession of thought and passion, strongly excited 
for the moment, but too fugitive to become mentally familiar, 
or directively useful in the higher designs of expression ; and 
therefore not calculated to lead his attention, or inquiry, be- 
yond the common topics of his art. 

Second. The whole mind of an Actor, with all its sensibili- 
ties, is involved in the disturbing interest of his success. I lis 
success is measured by public applause ; and public applause, 
though the very life and support of Egotism, rarely ass; 
enlarges the intellect, even on the subject of its ambition ; 
but is apt to weaken its power, and prevent its extension, 
and advancement in everything else. 

Third. The actor, by that necessary law of a wholesome 
and a happy life, which directs us all to some physical or intel- 
lectual industry, goes to the stage, in nearly every instance as 
a means of support; and too often without the preparatory 
education to give power to his purpose, and dignity to its 
effect; allured in the unreflective period of youth, by a dream 
of prospects and hope, rather than by a view of the influential 
realities and important consequences of his choice ; and beset 
by an early and restless ambition to be known, necessarily 
most argent with him who, while he is unknown to others, is at 
the same time very probably unknown to himself; <>!* a tem- 
perament, not always sedate and steady, nor extended and 
permanent enough to form the habit of looking into things as 
they are, and of fairly estimating the difficulties of a task. 
' I never think so nicely as that,' said an actress : the spoilt- 



610 FAULTS OF HEADERS. 

child of the populace of two Hemispheres 3 to one, who re- 
marked, that singing might be as articulate as speech. 

Now, as it is much easier, gradually to change a vague per- 
ception into positive error, than to work-up exact and compre- 
hensive observation into systematic truth 3 it is almost conclu- 
sive, that minds born, or fashioned by circumstances, to the 
condition we have just described, would turn from the labor of 
cultivating the united powers of observation and reflection, to 
the amusement of indulging a fancy ; and thus become a prey to 
the sophistry of Platonic fiction, or as it is now called, ' Ideal- 
ity,' or ' Transcendental thought.' And such appears to be the 
state of mind, as far as they have explained it, of that class of 
actors, who surrounding themselves with visions of more than 
enthusiastic passion, perform their part by the mystic means of 
Identity. 

I can say nothing of the state of mind of the second Class, 
that electrifies its hearers, by ' volition ;' by ' grand and sub- 
lime personations cut out of marble ;' and though without a 
'heart-throb of its own within its life-like sculpture,' yet stirs 
up its audience, to * deafening themselves with their frantic ap- 
plause.' Its power, in its own estimation, is indeed wonderful ; 
but the ways, and means, of this power are much beyond my 
understanding : for to me, the account of these so-thought Fri- 
gidists, equally with that of the former Class, taken from their 
own dreams about themselves, contains not one assignable image 
in description, not one useful word of instruction, and nothing 
but words, in the purposes of histrionic criticism.* 

Supposing then, the difficulty or impossibility of our compre- 
hending the above description of the two great classes of Act- 
ings to be as strict a consequence of its obscurity, as if it was 
designed to be unintelligible : how are we to correct the actor- 

* It appears, from the preceding description, that while the Actor of the 
second class, holds no ecstatic Identity with his Author, and returns no grateful 
'feeling' to the 'frantic applause' of his audience, he must have under his 
' sculptured suit of marble,' some very peculiar ecstacy within himself. 

As I vaguely comprehend this strange affair, and would write it down, in 
something like its own fantastic figures; the Actor's 'soul' sits all-secluded, a 
self-sufficient Monocrat, without a single minister of passion near the throne. 



FAULTS OF READERS. 611 

ism of Actors, in being either unconsciously or wilfully incom- 
prehensible in their ideas of themselves j which the ' Genius of 
the Lamp' of innate and self-sufficient light, has Btrongly en- 
couraged, if indeed, he did not originally introduce it into the 
strolling Company of Thespis ? Simply by removing their halu- 
cinations about personated ' Identity ' and Frigid personation ; 
by inviting them down from i the realms of cloud-land, where 
they dwell with the ideal creations of the poet ;' and by teach- 
ing them so clearly the measurable signs of thought, and pas- 
sion, that their own plain and intelligible state of mind if repre- 
sentable by countenance, gesture, and voice, can be distinctly 
conveyed to others. 

Since then the Observative Philosophy^ the Real Author- 
power of this work, under my humble name j has for the benefit 
of the Actor, furnished the materials for a better condition of 
his art, let the Actor listen for a moment, to the Observative 
Philosophy. 

All that has been gropingly sought through the ' spirituality' 
of Plato, and the Actor-ism of the Stage, may be thus set down 
in the clear Baconian Logic of the Senses. An actor, in his 
personations, is not a ' disembodied being of cloud-land ' ' kin- 
dled by Promethean fire ' and ' taking the audience by storm ;' 
with 'an upward gaze,' and in contempt of sensible things, 
' treading external circumstances beneath his feet.' lie is like 
the rest of usj though he may not admit this 'identity:' an 
earthly animal, of flesh and blood; with the means of moving, 
and of plainly or passionately thinking, and speaking ; which 
he is visibly and audibly to apply with intelligence and taste. 
The thoughts to be declared, are set down in his Part, and are 
plainly communicable, by grammatical and appropriate Bpeech. 
The passions to be expressed, are described or implied in the 
words of his author. These thoughts and passions, at Least all 
that can, and ought to be represented, arc common to mankind, 
and arc therefore readily excited in an audience, by their well 
known sensible signs. 

The actor being thus kept down to the level of humanity, on 
the points of thought and passion; the Baconian method of 



612 FAULTS OF READERS. 

working-out the practice through the principle, proceeds to the 
manner of expressing them. This is shown in the person, the 
countenance, and the voice. 

Spiritualism has never gone so far, as to assume the mystical 
direction of personal Gesture. The exalted, the downcast, the 
averted, the assenting, and dissenting head ; the hasty, the dig- 
nified, and the starting step ; the fixed, and the supplosive 
foot ; with the chironomy of the arm, in its unnumbered mo- 
tions and meanings, are all, in their consonance of character 
and expresssion with the countenance and voice, no more than 
obvious muscular movements, prompted by nature, confirmed 
in their uses by habit, and exercised with propriety and taste. 

In the countenance, the Baconian eye of observation sees 
nothing in character and expression, but physical form, outline, 
and movement, together with the smooth and the wrinkled, the 
white and the red ; all variously combined, and yet so plainly 
associated with their respective thought and passion, that your 
dog, happily freed from Platonic fancies, in a moment under- 
stands them in your face. But here the actor begins to raise 
his ' Perturbing Spirit ;' and not contented with nature's own 
physical sufficiency for his thoughtive and passionative signs, 
and which, if left to itself, would accomplish all his face is fit 
for, only forces it to the distortion of ' electrifying looks,' by 
' throwing his soul ' into his eyes, and nose, and mouth, and 
brow ; and perhaps, in violence to the just expression of well- 
closed lips, even into the grinning of his very teeth. 

And what does the Baconian observer find in the Actor's 
voice ? He hears that some of his words are of longer quantity 
than others ; some more forcibly pronounced ; some are harsh, 
others smooth ; some acute, others grave ; in short he hears, 
not in his souTs ear, but physically hears, the Modes of qual- 
ity, force, time, abruptness and pitch, with their various forms, 
degrees, and practical distinctions, detailed throughout this 
work ; by a pupil of only a lower Form, in the Baconian school, 
who is yet happy in its present, and looks with hopeful patience 
to its future tasks. But with all these phenomena within hear- 
ing, and only unrecognized because unnamed, the Platonic 



FAULTS OF READERS. G13 

Thinker, seeking something above vulgar sensation, has by ima- 
ginary ' movements of the spirit' and figments of 'occult 
causes,' not only prevented his own spontaneous perception of 
the vocal phenomena, but worse still, has so far contributed to 
obtund, as fictional habits generally do both the senses and the 
intellect, as not to let him listen, much less attempt to under- 
stand, when told by others, that the Expression of Speech is 
only one part of measurable and describable physical nature. 

Upon all that has been said, perhaps some of those who would 
degrade the Fine-art of Acting, to a level with the visionary 
Sychology of our poetic young ladies, may ask if we have not 
given a too prosaic, or 'matter of fact,' account of the material 
and formal causes of the Art? "What, says the 'cloud-capt' 
transcendentalist, is to become of the actor's grandeur, pathos, 
and grace, if they are to be deduced from physical, and not 
from ' spiritual ' causes ? AVe answer, that with those states of 
mind, the proper use of the physical means for vocal and per- 
sonal expression, will, under the observative system, display 
those states with more uniformity, and consequently with more 
force : for the expression not depending on the individual 
caprice of visionary personation, will have a more invariable 
character, and therefore be more clearly and generally under- 
stood. To me however, the reason is not apparent, why the 
mystical ' soul ' under the fancies of Identity, should be brought 
into Stage-Personation, more than into any other art. AVhy 
should not the Sculptor, Painter and Architect, when they 
studiously, and choicely complete their designs, and then prac- 
tically execute them with propriety and taste ; claim to have 
this mysterious light of esthetic inspiration '! We once heard 
of a Frenchman, who, having made a certain Miniature Sh<>c\ 
ascribed his success solely to the influence of ' a moment of 
enthusiasm.' And it has long been a by-word of the concentra- 
tive and transmuting influence of a Sheffield work-shop, thai a 
button-maker, as a ' glaring instance ' of Identity, docs in time 
become a very Button. Nor arc such jocose notion 
absurd, when applied to an Actor or when assumed by himself. 

The Fine arts are figuratively represented as sisters ; and 



614 FAULTS OF READERS. 

they are a closely related family, so far as the elegant work of 
their hands is directed by a unity of the general principles of 
beauty in the esthetic mind. But when these principles have 
perceptibly and practically taken-on their separate sister- 
forms 3 any attempt, marriage-like, to join two of them into 
one, would defeat the design of varied departments in taste ; 
and be repugnant to the idea of a confederate-independence 
among themselves. From a few elements of matter and mo- 
tion, or perhaps from single matter and its motion, Nature pro- 
duces her countless differences of function and form. The 
same abstract and governing principles of fitness and beauty 
in the arts, that create the delightful imagery of the poet, 
direct the just vocal expression of the actor. But when the 
abstract principle embodies itself into perception, the unity of 
the principle passes, if I may so speak, into the varied differ- 
ences of its exemplified forms. The abstract principle with the 
poet, is a conscious train of directive ideas, cognizable to others 
only by its effect in the imagery. The abstract principle with 
the actor, is the conscious train of directive ideas cognizable to 
others only by the effect in the proper audible-sounds of his 
voice ; and strange as it may seem, until further explained, 
we have a unity in the mental root and stock of those prin- 
ciples, but cannot have a direct resemblance between the 
several branches of the arts, which those principles produce. 
Somebody once made a doubtful metaphor, in calling Dancing, 
the 'poetry of motion.' It wants just as much, the clear 
picturing of a true and consistent trope, while it is altogether 
out of place, in serious discourse, to speak of the Poetry of the 
Stage. It has had too, the effect on unthinking Actors, and 
on Critics who should think to turn their attention, from the 
assignable merits of the art, to its vague and senseless mysti- 
cism ; and to encourage the weak-minded, to gossip with 
others, as well as to enter into their own reveries, about the 
4 magical and dreamy influence of passion.' If poetry j flimsy,- 
spirit-woven, merely self-intelligible poetry I mean 3 belongs to 
the Action of the Stage, then with the reciprocity of a meta- 



FAULTS OF READERS. 615 

phor, we might say^ the Action of the stage belongs to 
poetical soaring, even in its transcendental flights ; which is 
absurd. 

Let rne ask one question of the dramatic Mystagogue, both 
as critic and actor ; for if not of one party, they would soon 
go their way from each other; whence does the poetj yes, em- 
phatically for this case, the Poetj who being a participant- 
' spirit' in stage Identity, should in his own art be a bright 
example j whence does he draw this grandeur, pathos, and 
grace, which the Actor in his cloud of idealism, has only at 
second hand, to express ? Ask the Homers, the Virgils, the 
Shakspeare, the Milton, the Thomsons, the Popes, and the 
Cowpers, in their various powers ; and from their unmystified 
delineation of nature and of life, their analogies, all drawn at 
last, from that physical nature alone, not poetically sung, but 
clearly spoken to the ear in vivid representation of the objects 
of every other senses and learn how they have become to us, 
through the recognized exactness of their bright and exalted 
pictures, the Baconian philosophers of fiction, and the great 
'Secretaries' of nature and art; recording with illuminated 
faithfulness, the history of existing, and of possible, but imt of 
pretending truths. They copied, each in his own hand, what 
was, and what had been: and set down even what might be, 
with the clearness of a waking and a written thought. Let 
then the infatuated aspirant of Stage-Personation, who tl links 
we have been too prosaic, about his ' Genius of Identity/ learn 
through his dramatic Masters, from whose language he must 
draw the whole, or, to try his own style of metaphor, it would 
only be the pantomimic 'spirit' of his vocal expression; how 
they performed their high poetic part of grandeur, pathos, and 
grace, through all the breadth and depth of passion : without 
anv real ' nightly visits of the muse;' with no ' ecstacies' of the 
Delphian Tripod; no 'stirring the waters of the soul' to a 
.state of poetic Identity ; but on a humble seat perhaps, and 
without enchantment, drawing their ' goodly thoughts ' in the 
truth and strength of simplicity, from life and books, and 



616 CONCLUSION. 

things unwritten ; with the privilege of descriptively exalting 
the realities of nature to perfectional degrees of the beautiful, 
and the sublime. 



Here I finish the history of the speaking voice : having 
therein, designed to record no anecdotal wonders ; no magni- 
fying traditions of how far Whitfield could be heard ; no pro- 
digies of earliest infant speech ; no ultra case of a stammerer, 
who could not be even heard at all ; no echo past counting ; 
nor ventriloquism past belief. On a subject worthy in itself of 
respectful inquiry, I was reminded to pay a more grateful 
respect to the reader who might value this work, than contriv- 
ingly to entice him on to principles, by a distracting detail of 
wonderful and 'startling' facts; having endeavored to set be- 
fore him an honest and instructive story from Nature ; whose 
wisdom being the broadest principle and power of all generality, 
is, if it admits the term, a single Wonder, Uncompared. 

It has been my design throughout this work to subject the 
voice to a studious examination ; and by the simple but suffi- 
cient direction of the Ear, to unfold its supposed mysteries with 
philosophic precision. How far this has been accomplished, 
the intelligent reader must determine, with that allowance for 
minor errors, which the historian of Nature has perhaps, in an 
arduous task like this, a right to claim, and which the liberal 
and reflective critic, who may have been told of the inscrutable 
intonations of speech, will not refuse. 

Those to whom the subject of Elocution, in its higher mean- 
ing, is new, will receive this history without prejudice ; and 
though they may not have occasion for its practical rules, will 
still admire the beautiful economy of nature, in the ordination 
of speech. Those who have spent a life of labor, by the dim 
and scattered light as yet reflected from the art, and who are too 
proud or dull to take-on a new mind, with the advancement of 
knowledge j will at least learn from this essay, the deficiencies 
of the old scheme of instruction, even though they may not 
admit the deficiencies are here supplied. If the development 



CONCLUSION. GIT 

now offered, were only an addition to the art 3 persons of the 
latter class might discover traces of their former opinions, and 
thereby have some reason for admitting it. But finding here, 
the history of what may seem to be a new and therefore a 
revolting creation, they may reject it altogether, because they 
cannot recognize the definitions, divisions, rules, and illustra- 
tions of their familiar school-books of elocution. 

However Philosophy and Taste may admire the "Wisdom and 
Beauty in the Natural system of the voice, which we have 
endeavored to describe 3 it is to be regarded as a curiosity only, 
if it does not lead to some Practical application. I have there- 
fore endeavored, on the unalterable foundation of our physio- 
logical history, to establish a system of directive precepts, and 
of elementary instruction. 

If we infer from prevalent opinions, we must believe, the 
distinct methods of a good elocution are endless ; for every 
one with self-satisfaction thinks he reads wellj yet all read 
differently. There is however, under a varied application of 
just principles, but one method of reading-well; and we are 
now enabled, from a knowledge and nomenclature of the con- 
stituents of the voice, to furnish from Nature herself, and not 
from the endless fashions of the ignorant tongue, the effective 
means of that only-method. Without some system of general- 
ized facts and principles in Elocution, drawn from the per- 
vading unity of Nature, there can be none of that fellowship 
which so essentially contributes to the advancement of an art. 
Although there is an ordination of certain vocal signs to cer- 
tain states of mind^ conventional differences, unrectified by 
rule, tend to confound that ordination and weaken its autho- 
rity. If some uniform system of the voice be instituted, simi- 
larity of knowledge will insure greater accuracy in the use of 
its signs; for intonations, like words, will have more precision 
and force, when not varied from their fixed and appropriate 
meaning. 

In collecting and framing the precepts of Elocution, 1 have 
taken into view the strength, the propriety, and the beauty of 
expression. The system represents an intelligible, and digni- 
40 



618 CONCLUSION. 

fled method of the voice, under that form of severe but effica- 
cious simplicity, which is not at first alluring to him who is 
unaccustomed to regard the exalted purpose, and effect of an 
enduring taste. With the art of reading thus established, its 
excellence must grow into sure and irreversible favor, when- 
ever it receives that studious attention, which raises the pur- 
suits of the wise above those of the vulgar. I might, from an- 
other art, relate the story of the great Painter, who with his 
mind filled with anticipative reflections on the merits of Raffa- 
elle, was disappointed at his first sight of the walls of the 
Vatican, and disconsolate after his last. 

The florid style of elocution, formed by wider intervals than 
are proper to the diatonic melody, is the result of a sway 
of imagination and passion like that which prevails with the 
child and the savage. The thoughtless excitability of noise- 
loving ignorance, which delights in the florid intervals of 
speech, demands a perpetual change to faults of a like vivid 
character ; and capricious alteration takes the place of en- 
during improvement. The system of plain diatonic melody, 
with the occasional contrast of expressive intervals, for 
which, as the Advocate of Nature, I would plead, has in the 
charm of its simplicity, an impressive influence on the educated 
mind, which the studious use of observation and reflection in 
an art, must always produce. 

If this offered system of Elocution should, on the grounds of 
propriety or taste, be objectionable, let another be formed by 
him who is better qualified for the task. Only, let a consist- 
ent, though even a conventional, system be formed. And 
while in other arts, we can turn to an 'Apollo,' a 'Parthenon,' 
and a ' Transfiguration ' ; to the Rules of the Oratorio ; the 
Landscape of Whately, and of Price ; the ' Institutes' of 
Quinctilian, and the Precepts of Horace, and of Pope ; let 
Elocution be able hereafter, not only to bring forward the 
name of a Roscius, a Garrick, a Siddons, a Talma, and a 
Booth, but let it at the same time lay-up in the Cabinet of the 
arts, a history of the available ways and means of their vocal 
superiority. In short, let the art of speaking-well be invested, 



CONCLUSION. 010 

through its methodic description, with that corporate capacity, 
by the preservative succession of which, the practical influence 
of its highest masters shall never die. 

A kindly fellowship among the votaries of the arts, and the 
bad temper of disagreement, turn so entirely on a harmony in 
opinion, that whoever has examined this subject would, for 
social sympathy if not for truth and taste, prefer a factitious 
system, if well-ordered and consistent with itself, as a substi- 
tute for the varying and contradictory rules, constantly sug- 
gested by the ever-changing authority, in individual cases, of 
what may be called common or unenlightened speech. 

The Philologist, in the study and collation of languages, esti- 
mates those which have received their classified and concordant 
form from the arbitrary institutions of grammar and prosody, 
above those which arise with less connection or analogy, from 
the wants and passions of a barbarous people. 

Where shall we find the natural prototype of that elegant 
and precise science of Heraldry, which makes the enthusiast, 
over his armorial ensigns, delight in the purely invent' 
tern of the Escutcheon and its Charges, and read their artificial 
but methodic disposition, by the brief and luminous rules of 
Blazonry \ 

What book of Botany can designate the fluted stem and 
sheathing leaf of the free-handed floral volute j the symmetric 
lotusj the scrolled acanthus ■> the varied cup : ; the indented leaf- 
ing, with its delicate tracery 3 which altogether constitute the 
beautiful and endless combination of ornament, in the con- 
trasted and harmonious grouping of Greek and Roman Ideal 
Foliage? 

These three subjects are all the systematic yet conventional 
creations of art ; and it would seem, that objects of intellectual 
taste, as well as of Bensuous perception, are sometimes more 
satisfactory when enjoyed, in the one case, through the impres- 
sive habit of acquired appetite; and in the other through artifi- 
cial and therefore to the dogmatic mind, less changeable 
arrangements and rules : and we know that what is called 



620 CONCLUSION. 

acquired appetite, is always governed by the influence of some 
habitual principles, however arbitrary these principles may be. 

Without a system founded either on Nature, or Convention, I 
am at a loss to know by what authority criticism in Elocution 
is to be directed. Its rules have too frequently been drawn 
from the very instances which are the questionable subject of 
investigation. Garrick is to be tried; and by the Common 
Law, for there is no Statute here, the former case of Garrick 
is the rule of judgment. Happy for an art, when such autho- 
rity can be cited ! But what is to be said when presumption 
pushes itself into the front ranks of elocution, and thoughtless 
friends undertake to support it ? The fraud must go on, till 
presumption quarrels, as often happens, with its own friends or 
with itself, and thus dissolves the spell of its fictitious character 
and merits. 

The preceding history developes many principles of instruc- 
tion, and criticism, and makes some effort towards their appli- 
cation. Pronunciation, pause, and stressful emphasis are the 
only points of elocution which have been reduced to the preci- 
sion of particulars : and on these only have critics been able to 
show anything like definite censure or applause. By directing 
their inquiry to the details of Intonation, they will learn how 
far emphasis depends upon it: and when a perception of its 
universal influence in speech is awakened by exact descrip- 
tion, and nomenclature, they will then first perceive how the 
comprehensive designs of emphasis, in the fullest purpose of 
thought and passion, may be marred by defects in the delicate 
schemes of melody, and intonated expression. 

Bead over a review of dramatic performance. It may have 
words enough for its thoughts 3 and very good grammar. You 
cannot however, avoid observing a strong disposition on the 
part of the writer, to say something, when he has nothing to 
say : hence, with some transcendental abstraction, and some 
unintelligible analogy to explain it ; together with a parrot- 
vocabulary of unmeaning terms, generally misapplied, and 
always mawkish to an instructed and delicate taste, such as 
' chasteness,' < by-play,' < undertone,' 'freshness,' 'harmony, 



CONCLUSION. t;ji 

* effect,' and '■'keeping-; the writer soon makes his way to Borer 
ground, in noting the number and dress of the audience; the 
comfort of the seats in the orchestra, with thanks to the mana- 
ger, for recent alterations in the rules of the house j the habit 
of slamming doors, and the noise of iron-shod boots : the whole 
accompanied with copious extracts from some well-known dra- 
matic scenes, and perhaps a reprint of one of Cumberland's 
criticisms. But how can I here withhold an example of the 
4 fine phrensy' of one of those ' brilliant hits' of histrionic 
criticism ? ' To hear **** ? ' said and seriously too, not an 
illustrious, but a madly illustrating and modern English Poet; 
' to hear **** act, is like reading Shakspeare by a flash of 
lightning.' A meteoric lesson on Elocution, gesture, and the 
countenance, worthy of the transcendental teacher ; and quite 
satisfactory to those who thought themselves thus brightly 
instructed.* 

* To exemplify the unintelligible generalities of the greater part of histrionic 
criticism, under the indefinite idea of the old Elocution j I select the following 
article from a Charleston newspaper of the seventh of February, eighteen hun- 
dred and thirty-eight. It is a ' cloud-land ' analysis of the manner of a foreign 
Strolling-Actor, Starring at that time, through the United States j whose real 
excellence on many points could not however, under the old system, guard him 
against that transcendental fog of rhapsody, which destroys every perception, 
not only of an identity with his enacted character, but even of any likeness in 
the description, to the character of the Actor himself. After stating that the 
Theater was crowded, which we do understand, he goes on with what we do 
not: 

4 His reputation rests upon a charm that gathers strength with time — his ex- 
cellence is not particular, not resting upon starts, marvelous eccentricities, 
miraculous shreds, that like diamonds in rubbish astonish us by mere contrast 
with neighboring dullness — his excellence is general, it interests and absorbs 
you, not by the finish of a movement, the richness of a smile, the complication 
of a sneer or the preternatural power of a tone, but sweeps you on in the broad, 
bright stream of the profoundly estimated and distinctly developed character. 
You live in his personation — you feel your own blood sensibly coursing in the 
veins of his Hamlet, your own soul rocking with his indecisive will, your own 
brain gathering in the dim and awful musings that swell in his. It s>> dawns 
upon you, ever casting a light before its approach, that you receive it as the 
realization of your own ideal, rather than start at it as an unhoped for iron tor. 
You are not reminded that you had never thought of such, or such a conception 
before, and therefore you are never compelled to remember that the scene is 



622 CONCLUSION. 

The preceding essay furnishes principles and definite terms, 
by which the specific merits and defects of an actor, or a 
speaker may be distinctly represented ; by which the indescriba- 
ble mysteries of speech, as they are called, may be intelligibly 
told to other ages than those that hear them ; by which arro- 
gance and imposture in this art, may be wrested from their 
hold on the better part of mankind, and their corrupting 
influence left undisturbed over that great majority, always 
ready to support the small, and too often the greater frauds 
of life 5 and which, in its way, does receive a sort of pleasure 
from the changing pictures of its credulity. 

The same acute and comprehensive observation which makes 
an interpreter of nature, makes a Prophet in the arts. He can 
tell us, that in the future history of elocution, as it now is with 
song, the masters of its Practice must always be masters of the 
Science ; that they will, with the confident aim of principles, 
address themselves to the elect of intelligence and taste, by 
whom their merits will be rated and their authority fixed. And 
if in acquiring fame or fortune by their voice, they should 
receive assistance from this essay, I shall be contented to 
think it may be even a humble contribution to the means, 

without, foreign to you, on the stage and not in your own soul. You go with 
the personation, in it, a part of it, and not like parasites, bowing in mock 
astonishment at the heels of the show. This may be a little mystical, but it is 
as near as we can arrive to a correct account of the impression which Mr. 

has made upon our own minds. He is evidently a scholar, a man of 

thought, who has worked out his ideal with all the careful labor and intense 
dreaming that it costs the sculptor to perfect his. The consequence of this is, 
that he is always the character, always Hamlet — for instance, acting, feeling, 
imagining, suffering, like — no, not like, for that denotes a comparison of two 
things where there is not only resemblance but difference — it is rather Hamlet 
himself, Shakspeare's Hamlet, bursting the cerements of his blackletter sleep 
and walking out from the volume upon the stage. There is a freshness, a 
reality in it that would give it all the charm of novelty on repetition. It could 
no more grow tame than the eternal truth of the poet's own creation.' 

Again, at the end we have something that we do understand. 

1 The play was witnessed with earnest interest. We have not time to make a 

record of cheering, &c, but in the course of the evening Mr. was called 

out, and amidst loud and long applause, tendered his acknowledgments to the 
House.' 



CONCLUSION. 623 

by which the works of Esthetic Art have in all ages, delighted 
the intelligent and educated portion of mankind. 

Finally, I would recommend this analysis, and the practical 
inference which may be drawn from it, to those who declare that 
elocution cannot be taught ; that the just and elegant adapta- 
tion of the voice, to thought and passion, cannot be a conscious 
act, and must therefore be the work of earless, eyeless, and 
thoughtless ' Genuis ' alone. Such persons look upon this sup- 
posed peculiar-power of the mind, as a kind of sleight ; the 
ways and means of which are unknown and immeasurable. 
But ' genius ' as it appears from its productions, is only an un- 
usual aptitude for that broad, reflective, combining, and per- 
severing observation which perceives and readily accomplishes 
more than is done without it ; and is therefore in its pur- 
poses and uses, not altogether removed beyond a submission 
to knowledge and rule 3 though in its course of instruction, 
* genius ' is oftenest the pupil of itself. 

Let those who are deluded by this vulgar notion of ' genius,' 
turn themselves from mystics, who wrap-up only to misrepre- 
sent the simple agency of the mind, and who cannot define its 
high productive power, which through their own veil they do 
not comprehend; let them ask the great Sachems of Science, 
the encompassing, and far-seeing Chiefs of Thought, and learn 
from the real possessors of it, how much of its manner may be 
described. They will tell us that 'genius,' if we must use this 
loose and oft-perverted term, is in its high meaning always 
earnest, sometimes enthusiastic, but never fanatical : always 
characterized by steady perseverance ; by the love of an ob- 
ject in its means as well as its end; by that unshaken self- 
confidence in its unobtrusive powers, which converts the evil of 
discouragement into the benefit of success; which cares not to 
be alone, and is too much engrossed with its own truths, to be 
disturbed by the opinions of others: with a disentangling pur- 
pose to see tilings as they might be; and the energetic m 
to execute them as they ought to be; soaring above that musty 
policy which, in its 'wary' taet of the expedient, would with a 
world-serving quietude preserve them always as they are : hav- 



624 CONCLUSION. 

ing the power to accomplish great and useful works, only 
because it wastes no time on small and selfish ones ; and pass- 
ing a life of warfare in detecting the impostures and follies of 
its own age, that the unenvious verdict of the next, like the 
celebrated response by the Oracle of Delphi, may pronounce it 
the chief in wisdom and in virtue. 



BRIEF ANALYSIS 



OF 



SONG AND RECITATIVE. 



WHEN the phenomena of Speech, Song, and Recitative, are 
regarded independently of verbal distinctions, they display a 
nearer resemblance than is discoverable by a general view of 
their effects and names. It is the Disclosing duty of Philoso- 
phy to show us the real existences of things ; to break-down 
many of those lines of separation which the poor conveniences 
of classification have established; and to exhibit, as far as 
available with finite resources, that clear and comprehensive 
picture of Nature, surveyed at once and always, by the Infinite 
Discernment of her own self-present, and self-percipient eve. 

To the common ear, speech and song are totally different. 
Let us examine their relationships by a comparison of their 
several constituents. 

In taking up this subject, I have no new vocal function to 
describe. Song and Recitative are respectively only pertain 
combinations of the five modes of sound, and their forma, de- 
grees, and varieties, including the protracted radical, and van- 



626 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

islij enumerated in the preceding history of speech. It is my 
design to point out briefly, the manner of these combinations ; 
thus to complete the survey of vocal science ; and if the expres- 
sive use of the voice does at all admit the Pretensions of 
Recitative j to show the relationship between its three leading 
divisions. 

OF SONG. 

The art of Vocal Music has long been studiously cultivated ; 
and although it has never yet received a full elementary analysis, 
either of its structure or its effects, its investigations have 
accumulated a mass of observation, and framed a body of rules 
for governing the great and brilliant results of its practical 
execution. 

It is at this time, beyond both my design and ability to offer 
a detailed consideration of the topic before us. The opportuni- 
ties for inquiry on the subject of Song, as well as on that of all 
the Fine Arts, are too limited in this country, as regards com- 
panionship in knowledge j higher discussions of taste j and emi- 
nent examples of intelligence joined with executive skill, to 
furnish a proposed record, in that order and with that clearness 
which always characterize a direct transcript from nature. It 
becomes the American, in considering this subject, to offer only 
his own observation ; leaving a further description of the 
singing-voice, to the ample means of European experience, edu- 
cation, and exact inquiry. I propose to give a general account 
of the functions of song ; leaving it to those whom it may pro- 
fessionally concern, to make a practical application of the facts 
and principles here developed, or to regard them only as a 
pastime of knowledge, in natural history. 

As song consists in certain combinations of the five modes of 
the voice employed in speech, the proposed analysis will be 
given under the same general heads : and first 3 

Of the Pitch or Intonation of Song. Song has every di- 
rection and extent of intonation ascribed to speech ; together 
with two forms, which do not belong to the latter. 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SOXG. 627 

In the second section of the analysis of speech, I described 
those peculiar modifications of the concrete^ the Protracted 
Radical, and Vanish. In their most simple form they con- 
sist respectively of a faint and rapid concrete through the 
interval of a tone, joined to a level line of pitch. Let us 
call the former of these constituent movements, the Quick- 
concrete ; and the latter the Note. Of the quick-conrete and 
prolonged note, there are two conditions. 

In the First j the quick concrete rises and terminates in the 
note at the summit of the interval, thus constituting the Pro- 
tracted Vanish. The ascent by this continuation of quick con- 
crete and note, through the seven places of the musical scale is 
• illustrated by the following notation of time and pitch. 



?=4^ 



^3? 



^^ 



In the Second condition, the prolonged Note begins on the 
radical line. At its termination, the quick concrete rises to 
the summit of the interval; thus constituting the Protracted 
Radical. In ascending the scale, by this combination of note 
and concrete, the progression is made according to the follow- 
ing notation. 



s?r^? 



Q<" 



s^fk 



cFtr°^- 



By these two conditions, we learn that the note always has 
the quick concrete, before or after it. 

Song variously employs both these movements; the pro- 
tracted radical less frequently perhaps than the protracted van- 
ish: the voice iii its instinctive intonation, appearing to fall 
more readily into the latter. Not having however sufficiently 



628 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

examined this case, I leave it for future inquirers. Regarding 
the vocal effect or expression in these two forms of the pro- 
tracted note, there seems to be no difference between them ; 
and should no better reason be found for the singer's choice in 
taking one or the other, it might perhaps, in some cases, be 
decided by the character of the elements on which it is exe- 
cuted. Thus the radicals of the dipthongs, a-we, a-\ and ou-t, 
having more volume than their respective vanishes e-rr and 
oo-ze, would be chosen for the protracted note. When a subtonic 
begins, and a tonic ends a syllable, the protracted vanish would 
be taken. When a subtonic both begins and ends a syllable, 
there may be a reason for a choice between them. Hence a 
singer, with reference to the more agreeable sound, and more 
impressive effect of a long-drawn note, would use the protracted 
radical, or protracted vanish, as the construction of the syllable 
might allow. 

The time of the concrete-rise in the foregoing scales, is 
represented by a semiquaver, and that of the note, by a semi- 
breve, two comparative terms in music, expressing the propor- 
tion of one to sixteen ; yet the proportion may vary. 

In the great System of Song, there is a Simple, and a more 
Complex structure j formed respectively, by the discrete, and 
by the concrete movements of the voice. 

As the successions of pitch in song, represented by the pre- 
ceding scales, are made with a discrete skip to proximate de- 
grees, without a continuous slide from one note into another 3 
a vocal melody founded on these scales, forms the Plainest kind 
of song, resembling the discrete music of a flute. 

In this kind of melody, the length of the note, when com- 
pared with the concrete, is different, according to the time of 
the musical composition. Its longest quantity may exceed the 
proportion represented in the above scales. In its shortest, the 
note is dropped ; and the double form, of note and quick con- 
crete, thereby changed to a single equable concrete. This 
occurs in quick-timed songs -j which therefore strongly resemble 
speech ; and were it not for an occasional prolonged-note with 
wide skips of radical pitch, and a barred rythmus, they would 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF BONO. 

pass for it. This is the reason why it does not require much 
musical skill to sing a comic song, the greater part of its into- 
nation being in the equable concrete. 

The foregoing diagrams of the tone, represent the most 
simple form of the united quick-concrete and protracted-note 
of song. But other scales of wider concretes may be con- 
structed. 

The following diagram, represents the protracted vanish ; 
with a concrete, varying from a second to an eighth ; and a 
wider range of the concrete might be exhibited, for song occa- 
sionally uses it. Having given above, a full scale of the con- 
crete of a second with its protracted vanish, it is unnecessary 
to show a particular one, for each of the other intervals. The 
reader can in his mind, or from the following summary, do this 
on paper for himself, by drawing a full scale, with the concrete 
of a third j another full scale, with the concrete of a fourth ; 
and thus to the octave. And here, as the interval of the con- 
crete widens, the disproportion, both in extent and time, be- 
tween the note and concrete diminishes, and the latter looses 
its relative distinction of Quick. 



P 



TT^f -i 




Now, taking this diagram, with the page inverted, it will 
exhibit the notation of a Protracted Radical with an issuing 
concrete of the several intervals of the scale; observing, that 
here we begin with the octave* a difference of no account in the 
explanation. Of this form, the reader can also draw the 
ral full scales, with a differing concrete. Tims, we may have 
a representation of all the elementary forms of the protracted 
radical and protracted vanish, with their rising concretes of 
every extent, used in song. 

Again, song employs the downward concrete in connection 
with the Protracted notes ; and of these movements 



630 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

two conditions. The First descends by the concrete, and ter- 
minates in the protracted note. The Second, on the contrary, 
begins with the protracted note, and then descends by the con- 
crete, as in the following illustration 3 where only the third, 
fifth, and octave are represented ; but the reader can make for 
himself a full scale for each of the other intervals, under both 
conditions. 

First Condition. Second Condition. 




On 



^5^ 



There is another form of the junction of note and concrete, 
used in song, consisting of the above two conditions united : 
that is, the first condition may have a note at the beginning of 
its concrete, and the second a note at its end ; the concrete in 
each case being between two notes. Of this the reader can for 
himself, draw a full scale for each different concrete, with its 
protracted note. 

There are then in song, two conditions of the rising and two 
of the falling movement ; severally formed by a union of the 
concrete of every interval, respectively with the beginning or 
the end of the protracted note : and a third, in which the pro- 
tracted note is at both the beginning, and the end of the 
concrete. 

What was remarked concerning the length of the note, in 
the scale of the concrete second, may be said of the other scales, 
with their different intervals 3 that the proportion between the 
note and the concrete may vary till the former disappears alto- 
gether, and the movement becomes like the equable concrete of 
the several rising and falling intervals of speech : and further, 
that as the concrete is widened, there may be an equality be- 
tween the two. All which cases occur in the execution of the 
Elaborate or Florid Song. 

Let us suppose the forms of the concrete, without the appen- 
dage of the note, to be united into one continuous line of con- 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SOXG. 681 

trary flexure. This produces, with or without an abrupt radi- 
cal, the ivave of song; and inasmuch as we have concn 
every interval and in every direction, so they may be com- 
bined into every form of the wave. But besides this simple 
form, which is that of speech, the wave may either begin with 
a protracted note, or end with one ; or both begin and end 
with one. And these conditions, like the others, arc heard 
only for difficulty's sake, in the twists and turns of the Florid 
Song. 

Song likewise employs the Tremulous movement on the pro- 
tracted note, the concrete, and the wave. 

These are the several constituents of intonation in song ; and 
from the simple and limited, or complex and extended use of 
their two elements, the protracted note and the concrete ; song 
may be regarded under two divisions. First, as 

Discrete-Song; or the progression of a melody, formed 
solely of the protracted radical, or of the protracted vanish, 
with the concrete of a second or tone, or of its wave, and a 
discrete change of radical pitch through any interval. And 
second, as 

Concrete-Song; consisting of a continuous movement through 
the wider intervals, both in an upward and downward direc- 
tion ; mingled with protracted notes j with a wider radical 
pitchy with the various forms of the wave; and with every 
variety and degree of stress. In discrete song, the formality 
of the voice resembles that of an instrument with fixed notes : 
and in the concretej that endless interchange among all the 
forms and varieties of quality, force, time, and pitch, resembles 
the unmeaning permutations, in the voice of the mocking-bird. 

I here in passing, allude to the subject of articulation in 
song, since it is the management of pitch which secures the 
distinctness of this function. 

It was shown, that one of the requisites for distinct pronun- 
ciation in speech, is a just apportionment of the concrete, to 
the literal elements. The audibility of the words in song de- 
pends in part upon the same principle ; for though the peculiar 
intonation of the protracted note, destroys the general charac- 



632 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

ter of speech, it does not alter the rule of syllabication. The 
correct articulation of song however, requires a further atten- 
tion to the accentuation of words, and to their syllabic quan- 
tity. But the management of these matters lies with the com- 
poser and the poet. I have only to remark, that where the 
accent and quantity of syllables are adjusted to the accent and 
time of musical composition, song may be made as articulate as 
speech: and that with a full knowledge of the voice, together 
with the required diligence, a qualified person may learn to 
sing, in the plain melody, or discrete song, with as distinct an 
articulation as he speaks. I say in plain melody ; for the won- 
derful Lofty vocal-Tumbling of the florid and ambitious song, 
has often as little to do with syllables and words, as it has with 
Expression ; or with anything else than Difficulty, profitable 
engagements, and Applause. Writers on vocal science with 
the united resources of the old elocution, have endeavored to 
instruct us on this subject ; yet the same preceptive page which 
enjoins its importance, directs that the vowels should princi- 
pally compose the strain of utterance. The vowel or tonic 
sounds have indeed, the purest and most agreeable quality for 
songj and unfortunately allow fashionable singers to vocalize 
themselves out of their articulation, and astonish an audience 
out of a natural ear and its educated taste ; but it is also cer- 
tain, that a syllable in plain melody, is distinctly recognized, 
by its proper accent, and by the proper apportionment of quan- 
tity among its elements. Thus the purposes in these writers 
seem to be at variance. It is the vocalist's duty to reconcile 
them, by making distinct articulation agreeable. 

The preceding, is a general account of the structure of pitch 
in song. The manner of using it, in combination with other 
constituents, will be described hereafter.* 

* Upon a review of our history of the intonation of speech and song, it seemed 
to me^ the effect of the discrete scale of the latter with its issuing vanish, 
might be produced on some musical instruments. 

I had designed to connect a sqnare organ-pipe with its finger-key, by means 
of compound levers, so that the same touch which raises the wind-valve should, 
at a succeeding moment, raise a hinged shutter on one side of the pipe, at its 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 633 

Of the Time of Song. Time is here considered, only in 
relation to individual constituents, not to the general construc- 
tion of melody and its rythmus. 

open end; the object of this shutter being to cover an oblong aperture, or 
ventage, reaching from the very end of the pipe, so far towards its sounding- 
lip, as to raise the pitch a tone or second when the shutter should be opened. 

Now this shutter having its centre of motion towards the sounding-lip, was 
to overlap the edges of the oblong ventage : while the under surface of this 
shutter, was to have a block attached to it, for entering and closing the ventage, 
the overlap of the shutter forming a rebate to the sides of the closing block. 
This block to be of some thickness, and beveled with its sharp angle towards 
the end of the pipe; that when the shutter, together with the beveled block 
in the ventage, as the under part of it should be raised, the ventage would be 
gradually opened, and the intonation be thus made to ascend gradually, with a 
concrete movement. Thus with the shutter entirely opened, the long note 
then produced immediately following the concrete, might give the instrumental 
execution of the protracted vanish. 

In the transitions of melody with such a contrivance, it would be necessary 
that the valve in the wind-chest should be made to close before the shutter, 
otherwise the gradual descent of the shutter, would make a falling concrete, on 
every note. 

I have thus suggested the principle on which an experiment may be tried 
by those who have ability, time, and convenience for such works: and there 
are other ways which persons of mechanical cleverness may contrive, for pro- 
ducing the concrete movement on a sounding-pipe either of metal or wood. 

Perhaps this mechanism might be connected with the vox-humana stop of an 
organ, or even the ventages of a bassoon. If this is practicable, it may give 
to instruments a little more of the character of the singing voice than they at 
present possess. 

I cannot say how much further the principle might be applied, for adding 
the wider ranges of the concrete, by a ventage of greater reach in the pipe. 
The mechanism even for the Second would not be simple, and the management 
of more than one concrete-key, if I may so call it, might be beyond the dex- 
terity of the player. "What could be done on barrel-organs, machinists can 
best tell. 

Automaton Figures have been made to speak, as it is called ; but it is in 
the protracted note proper to song. Would not the imitation of speech be 
nearer, if the sound were by its instrumental cause, formed into the equable 
concrete? 

On the whole, I shall be sorry if any one should lose his labor by a vain 
working at this problem. It is not the odd-ends of time that ever did any 
thing well : and if the schemer should be disposed to devote one useful day, 
to the wasteful hazards of mechanical ingenuity, in such matters as here pro- 
posed, let him take, at the same time, a hint of caution. 

41 



634 A BEIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

Time is used with every degree of duration, on the note, on 
the upward and downward concrete, and on the wave. When, 
in quick-timed song it is so short as to exclude the note, 
the effect of the individual act of intonation does not differ 
from that of the radical and vanish of speech. 

Of Quality of Voice in Song. Quality of voice has the same 
character and effect, in song and in speech. But since the 
long quantities of the former consist of the protracted tonics, 
quality is here more obvious. There are harsh, full, slender, 
and nasal voices, and what is called in the language of the 
schools, Pure Tone. This subject is however so well known to 
singers, as to need no further consideration here. 

A subject of physiological inquiry, connected equally with 
song and speech, here deserves our notice. It is learned by 
a few trials, that all the tonic and most of the other elements 
may be made individually by the act of Inspiration. The 
quality is indeed strangely altered ; still the characteristic sound 
is complete. It would seem then 3 the vocal functions are prac- 
ticable both in the ebb and the flow of respiration ; though the 
former has been universally appointed to carry out the con- 
tinued current of speech. Now as the inward flow of inspira- 
tion permits the utterance of only a single word, or at most 
three or four, the effect of inward speech resembles that of 
infants, upon their first attempts in expired speech. We have 
not for the purpose of inward speech, the Holding-breath, as 
we formerly called it, and therefore the act of inspiration, 
bearing its single word, immediately fills the lungs, as the 
Exhausting-breath with the infant, reversely drains them, and 
thus cuts off the course of utterance. 

It may then be made a question, whether by a practice as 
long and assiduous as that which gives command over the time 
of expiration, the same holding-breath might not be attained in 
inspiration ; and, should the quality of this inward voice, be 
improvable, whether it might not be employed in the pur- 
poses of singing, for sustaining the voice indefinitely, and for 
insuring a continuous intonation in the higher intricacies of 
execution. It is certain 3 this power has been attained in 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

•whistling, both as regards shrillness, and the accuracy of pitch : 
and though in this case, the command over the holding-breath 
of expiration, far surpasses the command over that of inspira- 
tion, still, the turning point for inhaling may he rendered 
almost imperceptible, through the controlling power that does 
exist. It has been proposed to apply the knowledge of this 
fact of inspired speech, to the cure of stammering : but this 
irregular articulation, depends on unknown causes, in the mind 
as well as in the vocal muscle, and on a defective CO 
between them.* 

Of Force of Voice in Song. Force has reference either to 
the general drift of the voice, or to its individual movements. 
We shall consider it only in the latter relation. 

All the forms of stress we have ascribed to speech are found 
in song. This is true, not only of the equable concrete, some- 
times used in the short impulses of the singing voice ; but the 
radical, the median, and the vanishing stress, are also severally 
applied to the protracted note, and to every course and extent 
of the wave. 

The full and abrupt radical being always preceded by an 
occlusion j it may have a place at the outset of all the forms of 
the concrete j at the outset of the protracted radical, and of the 
note, represented in the second condition of the preceding dia- 
gram. A note at the termination of a rising or of a falling 
concrete cannot receive the radical stress. 

The greater duration of time, allotted to the different forms 
of the concrete and to the protracted notes, beyond what is 
allowable in speech, gives rise to a modification of the median 
stress or swell, not practicable on the syllabic concrete of dis- 
course ; for more than one of these swells may be sel on the 
same note ; that is, the force may diminish and increase alter- 
nately. The median stress may also on a protracted quantity, 
slightly resemble respectively that of the radical and of the 

*The Opera, anil the Concert Hall, in their Auctions of Fame, bid high for 

the execution of vocal difficulties. Here then is the chance of an en 
pay, for success in what, as far as known, has never been dune bet . 
what at first thought, may seeui to be impossible. 



636 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

vanish, by suddenly enlarging in the course of the prolongation 
and gradually diminishing ; and by the reverse. This however, 
is a physiological refinement ; and we are not yet ready for its 
practical use. 

The various stresses are applicable to the radical and vanish, 
on the short syllabic intonation of comic song. 

But the most remarkable use of force is made by the com- 
pound stress, in that vocal ornament called the Trill, or Shake. 

The shake is described to be, a rapid alternation of a lower 
with an upper note, on proximate degrees of the diatonic scale. 
In stricter definition, it is a rapid alternation of two vocal or 
instrumental momentary sounds, for they are not notes, on the 
extremes of a tone or a semitone. Let us call these two consti- 
tuents of the shake, its Co-sounds. 

We learned that every concrete impulse on a tonic or sub- 
tonic element, necessarily consists of a radical and vanish. 
Consequently, when we make two successive impulses on 
different degrees of pitch, each must have the two essential por- 
tions of the concrete. But as the radical with its vanish con- 
sumes more time than the radical alone ; and as the radical is 
an abrupt opening, after an occlusion, there would be, in this 
manner of making the shake, a delay from employing the whole 
time of the two portions of each concrete ; as well as a momen- 
tary pause, between the close of the vanish on the first, and 
the opening of the radical on the second. Now the shake 
being a rapid iteration of two co-sounds, without apparent in- 
terruption, it cannot be made by a series of concrete impulses 
each having its radical and vanish. For should a singer try to 
execute a shake by taking the whole of the dipthong a-\e, as 
one of the co-sounds, he cannot, by any effort, give its charac- 
teristic rapidity, when the first sound of a-le is thus the begin- 
ing of each of its successive co-sounds ; for as the vanish, e-ve 
must necessarily follow the radical a-le, we employ the whole 
time of both the radical and vanish 3 which makes each co- 
sound too long for a rapid execution of the shake. By assigning 
each of the co-sounds respectively to the radical, and to the 
summit of the vanish of this dipthong, thus forming the com- 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SOXtt. 637 

pound stress, there will be no insuperable difficulty in its exe- 
cution. And the same is true of a shake on the other dipthoi 
their respective co-sounds being different in elemental quality. 

In the case of the monothongs, the quality of their several 
co-sounds is the same. 

The rapid execution of the shake, and the momentary impulse 
of its co-sounds, make it a difficult subject of investigation. 
The resemblance however, of the intonation of the vocal, to 
that of an instrumental shake, affords a proof that the former 
like the latter, consists of two sounds on different degrees of 
pitch. It also appears, from the like illustration by an instru- 
ment, that the co-sounds, though of different degrees of pitch, 
are of equal time, volume, and force.* 

* It may seem, that the shake might be made by each of the co- sounds being 
the momentary utterance of what we called the rapid concrete: and as this 
instinctively flies through with the radical and vanish, apparently as quick as 
a single co-sound, our explanation of an artificial and very difficult manner of 
deriving the fluent and rapid movement of the shake, from the slow accentual- 
efforts of the compouud stress^ may seem to be unnecessary or incorrect. It 
may seem, being by the mass of mere Thinkers, from interest or other motive, 
60 readily changed into it is> there is no calculating the logical mischief it has 
done. I will not therefore reason against what may seem on one side, by what 
may seem on the others for we should then have to invoke the aid of Plato, 
Aristotle, and the ancient as well as the modern itinerant and lecturing 
Sophists j but will only state, that the may seem on our side, has already been 
submitted to decisive observation, and experiment, in the instinctive tremor I t' 
the voice; and we have in the Guryle of the throat, an iteration of the rapi 1 
concrete with both its radical and vanish. Now this is not a shake ; nor can 
any skill or velocity ever make one of it. Vocalists call it the ' Goat's Quiver,' 
or some such name, though they have not been able to show the difference of 
structure between the Quiver and the Shake. Our history tells us that the 
Gurgle or Quiver is formed by the Tittles of the second or of the semitone, on the 
tremulous scale ; the Shake, by a rapid execution of the compound stress, on 
either of these intervals. Before the invention of the shake : which is altogether 
Artificial, and is said to be of comparatively recent application to song : this 
Gurgle, or 'Trembling,' as the French formerly called it, was used as a vocal 
ornament. It is instinctively practiced for Laughter and Crying, and for Other 
purposes in the human voice ; is found among sub-animals of all olasees : and 
i< distinguished from the shake by the slightly abrupt ami chattering radical of 
the tittles In the aspirated grating, scratching or chattering of the u 
voice, the tremor is exemplified by our common V>\.\r\ I heta albre- 

viata ; and the shake, though not a rapid one, with its median swell, by the 
Cicada pruinosa, or Annual Locust of the Middle States. 



638 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

From our previous views, the formation of the shake may be 
described under two conditions ; in each, the delay that might 
arise from every impulse having both a radical and a vanish -> 
which we have shown, creates the whole difficulty of the case j 
is obviated by a subdivision of the concrete movement into the 
Compound stress. 

For an idea of the first formative condition 3 let the summit of 
the concrete impulse, or the vanishing portion, be enforced to 
an equality with the radical. We shall then have one impres- 
sive sound at each extreme of the impulse, joined by a smooth 
transition of the fainter concrete, and forming the first two co- 
sounds of the shake ; which, in this case, are both made within 
the time required for one impulse, when that impulse contains 
both a radical and a vanish. Since then the vanishing stress, 
or what, in this instance, is improperly called the upper note 
of the shake, is terminated by an occluded catch, as in the sob 
and hiccough^ the voice is enabled by an immediate opening of 
that occlusion, to begin a new radical stress, improperly called 
the lower note. Thus, by breaking from the occluded vanish 
of one impulse into the radical of the next, and so, saving the 
time of transition through one whole concrete with both its radi- 
cal and vanish, the rapid and apparently united co-sounds of 
the shake are effected. In the following diagram 3 



the lines a and b denote two proximate degrees of the scale. 
The figure 1 the radical stress, or lower co-sound of the shake : 
2 the vanishing stress, or upper co-sound, on which the voice is 
occluded. In an imperceptible instant, this occlusion breaks 
out into the next radical stress 3. The voice is then diminished 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF & 

in force ; and again increased to its vanishing .stress, and occlu- 
sion at 4. 

When made in this way, the shake may he considered 
rapid iteration of the compound stress, between the extra 
a tone or a semitone. 

For the second condition, let us take the first two of the co- 
sounds, or as we may call them, co-stresses, described and illus- 
trated ahove. Deliberate trial will prove that an application 
of stress to the upper extreme of the rising concrete at 2, and 
to the lower at 3, as represented in the last diagram, in n<> 
way, prevents the voice, from making a downward continuous 
turn, from 2 to 3, in one case, and an upward continuous turn, 
from 3 to 4, in the other, into the form of a continued wave : 
and thus by an alternate succession of these radical and vanish- 
ing stresses, or expansions, joined by the fainter concrete, but 
without an occlusion of voice, we are able to effect a rapid 
iteration of the co-sounds of the shake; as represented in the 
following diagram j where the voice opens at 1, with the radical 
: then diminishes to the faint concrete; subsequently 
enlarges to the vanishing stress at 2; then without an occlu- 
sion, turns downward, and after diminishing to the faint con- 
crete, enlarges to the stress in the radical place at 3 ; ami in 
this way, when rapidly executed, forms the proper co-sounds, 
or co-stresses, or co-expansions of the vocal shake. 

2 4 



avsvst 



1 3 



Under this view, the shake is ;i rapid alternation of the com- 
pound stress, on the rising and falling constituents of a con- 
tinued wave of proximate degrees. Ami thus we learn, that 
the iterated co-sounds are ooi note*) hut emphatic stresses of 

no assignable time, on the points of contrary flexure in the 



640 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

wave. But as there can be a sudden fulness of the voice, only 
on a first outbreak of the radical 3 an engrafting of the vanish- 
ing stress on the concrete, at the place of the second or upper 
sound, must be made by a swell or expansion into the fulness 
of that stress. From 2, the fulness being diminished, is again 
swelled into the lower sound at 3 ; and thus the shake has the 
form represented in the diagram. From this junction of the 
stresses by an intermediate and attenuated concrete, and from 
the gliding of one into the other, we may perceive the cause of 
the smoothness, and of the 'liquidity,' as it is called, of a skil- 
ful and finished execution of this vocal ornament. The pecu- 
liar manner of uniting this double stress with rapid intonation, 
in the shake, not being part of the colloquial and slower uses 
of the voice, for the compound stress in speech consists of but 
two co-sounds 3 it is not surprising that the power of executing 
it, is unattainable by most singers, and only acquired, in any 
case, after a long time, by great industry and perseverance. 

This is an attempt to explain the manner of combining stress 
and intonation in the shake. And yet, I am unable to give an 
unquestionable description of it. By a slow and measurable 
movement of my own voice, I perceive, it can be made under 
each of the conditions above described. When it is quickened 
to its characteristic rapidity, the distinct perception of its 
structure and motion is lost, and I find it impossible to decide, 
which of the conditions is then employed : though strongly 
inclined to think it is the latter. With the assistance of this 
work, some other observer may describe it more definitely. 

Perhaps the explanation here given, may suggest a rule for 
teaching the practice of the shake. A method founded on this 
analysis, enabled me, with no other instructors than observation 
and Industry, to attain a command over it, with a precision and 
rapidity, sufficient for the purposes of the present investigation : 
which certainly, could not, unassisted by a Master, have been 
ns easily, if at all accomplished, without a knowledge of the 
compound stress, experimentally applied in reference to the 
radical explosion, and the vanishing sob. It would be difficult 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 041 

to say, how far the aid of our description might lessen the time 
and labor of acquiring the shake. 

As the compound stress is practicable on every interval, so a 
shake might be composed of an iteration of that stress on the 
extremes of wider intervals: and indeed, a slow shake of this 
kind, is sometimes heard among the tricks of the Florid song : 
but it is not technically classed with that ornament. It lias a 
singular, and as I have heard it, not an agreeable effect ; and 
the width of the concrete, preventing the rapidity of the proper 
shake, it has not its liquidity, nor its hovering pre-cadencial 
character. 

It is a question among vocalists, whether the 'accent' as 
they call it, is on the upper or the lower 'note,' or as we now 
regard it, co-sound of the shake. From our preceding account 
of this ornament, no cause appears, for a difference of opinion 
in this case, and indeed for anything like an accent on cither. 
There is the usual rythmic perception of accent on the bar or 
bars through which the shake is sustained ; and with the men- 
tal beat, there might be a slight momentary swell on the co- 
sounds, at the points of these beats. But I cannot hear even 
this; and cannot therefore believe, there is an alternate accent 
of force, much less an inequality in time, between the upper 
and the lower co-sounds. Once admit it, and there would be 
an alternation both of stress and of pitch that would destroy 
the even and graceful undulation, and the liquidity of the 
shake ; and change the function to that of the tremulous 
gurgle. 

Vocalists have described several kinds of shake. With its 
proper structure and effect, I can observe but two ; the diatonic 
and the semitonic, severally formed on a tone and a semitone. 
"What has been called a Rising and a Falling shake, is perhaps 
only the gurgling, or rising and falling radical pitch of t lie 
tremor; for as the tremor is not made up of CO-SOunds, or com- 
pound stresses, but of rapid concretes with each its radical and 
vanish^ the terms rising and falling, which do apply to th" tre- 
mor or gurgle, and not to the shake, have been improperly 
retained, after the introduction of the peculiar iteration on proxi- 



642 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

mate co-sounds. This true shake, after continuing along its 
level line of pitch, may be skipped a degree, or perhaps more, 
and then continued on this new line. But when carried directly 
upward or downward, by proximate degrees, through more or 
less of the scale, the course of the co-sounds is called a Divi- 
sion, the structure and movement of which will be presently de- 
scribed. Other shakes enumerated in books, are only particu- 
lar uses of that ornament ; or only combinations of it, with 
various forms of intonation. 

The meaning and peculiar effect, for it cannot be called 
Expression, of the shake may be stated under Five heads ; and 
First. The most striking and agreeable character of the shake 
lies in its refined, its tunable, and as it were, its polished Qual- 
ity ; which however I here consider with reference, exclusively 
to the high pitch of the Soprano voice. In men, generally 
speaking, the shake, as indeed most of their florid execution, 
denotes in their lower pitch, and rougher vocality, little more 
than a muscular difficulty ; for a low pitch, with a full quality, 
as we learn from instruments, destroys the essential elegance 
of the shake ; though perhaps the harmony of a tenor and 
soprano, where the latter takes the lead on the ear, produces 
the most delightful effect of this ornament. Second. There is 
in the shake, what has been called, its Liquidity. This arises 
in part, from Quality, and in part from the smooth and rapid 
gliding of the concrete into the expansions of the co-sounds ; 
and is therefore more effective in the higher voices of women. 
Third. An agreeable effect is produced by the variety of one 
or more swells, in the continued line of the co-sounds. Fourth. 
The preceding remarks apply equally to both the shakes. But 
the semitone is distinguished by a pathetic character ; though 
moderated perhaps, by the rapidity of the transit of the con- 
crete and its co-sounds through the interval, and by an over- 
ruling impression of Quality, and of the liquid pouring from 
one co-sound to another, in the current of their intonation. 
Fifth. I am disposed to class the effect of the shake, particu- 
larly the diatonic, with that of a downward skip, or a concrete 
of the third, in the Prepared Cadence of speech : for, as it seems, 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SOXG. 643 

the balanced suspension or hawk-like flutter of a prolonged 
shake, before its final stoop to the key-note, creates the expec- 
tation of a descent, and calls for the immediate close of song, 

similar in manner and effect, to that of the falling of a third, 
for the prepared and reposing cadence of discourse. 

There is another occasion, on which the compound Btr 
used in song. 

When an extent of the whole compass of the voice, greater 
or less than the seven degrees of the scale, is rapidly traversed, 
but with a marked designation of each degree in the flight, it 
is called, 'running a Division.' "We have seen, in the forma- 
tion of the shake, that adjoining points of the scale cannot be 
marked in rapid succession by concretes, where each contains 
both the radical and vanish ; it is necessary therefore in exe- 
cuting a Division, that the compound stress should be used, 
under one of the two conditions of its rapid execution, above 
described. In the first, the concrete receives the radical ab- 
ruptness, and the vanishing occluded catch. This occlusion 
prepares the way for a second radical, and thus by successive 
concretes of compound stress, with a momentary but impercep- 
tible occlusive catch between them, the degrees of the Division 
are rapidly traversed, and distinctly marked. For the second 
condition, we must suppose the voice to make a concrete move- 
ment through the scale, to the whole extent of the designed 
Division j and the expansion of an emphatic stress to be applied 
on each of the proximate degrees of the scale, within that 
extent. This may be illustrated, by supposing the chain of 
oblique figures in the second diagram of the -bake, to be drawn 
out to a straight line; and thus representing the Stresses on the 
proximate degrees of a rising or a falling scale. A Division is 
then, a rapid iteration of the compound stress, on every proxi- 
mate degree of the scale, for a given extent, in an upward or 
downward direction. 

There are various way- of running a division, or as we may 
call it, a Chain of compound stress, In long sweeps of agility, 
the whole compass of the voice may be passed through in one 

continued chain of an upward or downward, 80 t<> call it, knot- 



644 A BEIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

ted movement ; or the progress may be less extensive ; or it 
may be made by varied groups of compound stresses, with a 
pause between the aggregates. In short, the compass may be 
traversed in numberless ways, by the pitch, time, and manner 
of succession, of the co-sounds. Sometimes the run is by the 
proximate step of a semitone : but whatever the movements 
may be, they are all performed on the principle of the com- 
pound stress. 

Of the 3felody of Song. Having described the particular 
forms of pitch, time, and stress, we may now take a general 
view of their combinations into Melody. 

The structure of melody exhibits every variety in the num- 
ber of its constituents, and in their interchangeable union, from 
the use of a simple protracted note with its quick and almost 
imperceptible concrete of a second, which we called Discrete 
song j to that of every form of the concrete, and of every form 
of stress, particularly the compound > constituting ' airs of agil- 
ity' or ' florid execution,' which we called Concrete song. This 
distinction however serves only to mark the extremes of a varied 
use of the voice ; since song is rarely heard in the strictly dis- 
crete form ; and when once the concrete movement of wider 
intervals than the second is admitted, no definite line of sepa- 
ration can be drawn between the associated constituents of its 
structure. It was shown, in describing the drift of melody in 
Speech, that the three divisions of the states of mind and of the 
voice, though manifestly different in their several exclusive 
and restricted uses, are often so run into each other, as to pre- 
vent a systematic separation of their intermingled signs. And 
we have the same difficulty of classification with the intercur- 
rent melody or style of Song. 

In general terms then, and without pretending to describe 
the confines of each, I would call the Discrete-melody -> That 
which moves by proximate degrees, and by radical change, under 
the form of intonation represented in the first two scales of 
the protracted radical and vanish ; and showing occasionally, 
because it can scarcely be avoided, a concrete movement of 
some of the wider intervals, and of the wave. This is the style 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 645 

of song used by the Church, when the Choir is assisted by the 
Congregation. It is suited to the common capacity of the voice, 
and resembles the instrumental effect of the organ which 
accompanies it. 

I would call the Concrete melody 3 That disposition of the 
note, concrete, wave, compound stress, and every form of time 
and intonation, which, united with the Discrete, constitutes, 
within due limits, the delightful union of nature and art. in the 
expression of song ; but which forced beyond the just bounds 
of vocal facility, produces the extraordinary and unmeaning 
nights of a fantastic and wonder-working execution. An exe- 
cution that has too often cunningly joined the profits of the 
Artist with the mere difficulties of his art ; and with all who do 
not see through the false association, confounds a fanatical 
interest in the vocal artifices, name, and fashion of a Singer, 
with the cultivated feeling and taste of a musical ear. An exe- 
cution that has at last brought an audience, too often to mis- 
take a falling-in with the noisy applause of a surrounding crowd, 
for their own individual sensibility to the enrapturing expres- 
sion of melody, and the harmonizing richness of its perfecting 
accompaniment.* 

Upon this, and our previous history, we are now prepared 

* When this medley of the vocal constituents, with all its studied difficulties, 
was first taken over to England, for sale^ it was advertised as the Italian Man- 
ner: and indeed its mannerism was then regarded, and reasonably too, as a 
caricature; for certainly its Bravura-song is an exaggeration, and its Reci- 
tative a misplaced distortion of the natural voice of expression. But wonder 
and novelty are the chief Idols of popular Taste ; and whoever then possessed 
a little vocal facility soon began to imitate the long-drawn concretes and waves 
of the New Importation. To this we owe the monotonous Squeel, taught by 
the Singing-Master in the Italian Style, with its ever-and-anon returnn 14 
surging upon the ear, and drowning-out the rest of the song: a sad fate to a 
Taste that happens to be in the neighborhood of a fashionable young lady who 
frequents the Opera, and of the sewing-girl over the way, who has learned from 
her, to execute those every half-minute Sijueeling waves, equally well. 

It is often easier to find causes, than excuses for an offense. Perhaps the uni- 
versal fashion, of our Italian-taught Misses affecting this repeated Sxtcnuio, in 
a high Soprano wave, with its median stress, is encouraged by a family re- 
collection of the perverse Squeeling of their little brothers and sisters, and even 
of themselves j when children begin to have their own noisy way in the nursery. 



646 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OP SONG. 

to sum up the differences between the construction of song and 
speech. 

The Discrete-melody of song, though resembling in a few 
points the melody of speech, is still remarkably distinguished 
from it, by the effect of the protracted note, and by the more 
frequent occurrence of wider transitions in the radical change. 

In the Concrete-melody of song, under its most complicated 
form, for I thus choose an extreme case, the difference consists 
still further in the kind, number, and uses of its movements. 
The range of its melodial compass exceeds that of proper 
speech. The compound stress, under rapid iteration in the 
shake, and in the rapid run of divisions, is the most frequent 
constituent of airs of agility ; while it is used by the speaking 
voice, only in the two co-sounds of a slow and single concrete. 
A function common to both is the equable concrete, which is 
sometimes set to the short syllables of song ; though common 
perception does not then recognize it as a characteristic of 
speech. The wider waves too, occasionally used for emphasis 
in discourse, occur perpetually in the florid song. 

Of the Expression of Song. Expression in song, and in 
other music is the power of exciting certain states of mind, 
which in this case we properly call Feelings 3 by means of the 
pitch, time, force, quality, and abruptness of sound. 

It appears from this definition, that the materials of expres- 
sion in song are the same as those in speech: though some dif- 
ference will be found in their special employment, and respective 
effect, in the two cases. The Italians who have extensively 
taught us in music 3 and who, with the purpose of their art 
changed perhaps to a vain-glorious authority, enslave too many 
fashionable, and often musical ears to their National Manner- 
ism 3 have divided their song, with reference, rather to the 
style of its execution, and the places in which it is displayed, 
than to its expression. I am only hinting at an arrangement, 
upon the points of its rudimental functions and their effects 
upon the feelings. 

In a general view of the subject of expression, we find 3 the 
dignity of Song is produced by the same fulness in quality, 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SOXG. 647 

length of time, gravity in pitch, and limitation of the extent of 
concrete and of radical pitch, that give an elevated and Bolemn 
character to reading. There can be no grandeur in a melody 
with the reverse of these conditions. 

A lively style of song, on the contrary, like the sprightly 
manner of discourse, is made by a lighter quality ; a quicker 
time ; wider intervals of concrete, and of radical pitch, and a 
greater variety in its successions. The Aria BufTa or the 
Comic Song, generally consists of such short quantities, that 
most of its syllabic impulses are made in the true equable-con- 
crete of speech : and the only reasons, as it appears to me, 
why it is known to be song, are its having a barred time, an 
occasional long quantity, and a concrete and radical pitch of 
wider intervals, than those of the current of speech. 

The plaintive effect of the semitone, and of the minor third, 
which is only a peculiar position of the semitone, is similar to 
the chromatic character of spoken melody. Perhaps as re- 
marked above, we ought to consider the expression of the 
cadence as similar in these two uses of the voice ; since the 
return to the key-note in song, docs, like the intonation at the 
periods of discourse, produce the agreeable feeling of satisfac- 
tion and repose. 

Let us take another and more particular view of expn 
with reference to the different kinds of melody. And First ; 

Of the Discrete-Song. This is not without expression, 
though it falls short of what is effected by a judicious use of 
the more extended, and varied vocal movements. Its sources 
are derived from quality, pitch, time, and stress. 

The tunable sound of a prolonged note may give a peculiar 
character to song. Fulness produces in the hearer the Btate 
of solemnity; smoothness that of grace; and in the grotesque 
efforts of the comic song, the extreme and distorted variations 
of quality excite a perception of the gay or the ridiculous. A 
regards quality, the principles of expression are similar in 
speech and song: but perhaps the effed of quality is more 
obvious in the latter. 

The expression of Fitch consists in the transition through 



648 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

certain intervals. The discrete-melody can therefore display 
the plaintiveness of the semitone, and occasionally of the minor 
third ; together with what may be effected by the successions of 
other intervals of the scale. 

The Discrete song may, by its Time, be either grave or gay. 
It appears, that the longer quantity of song is more agreeable 
than the short syllabic impulses of speech, even when they each 
have the same melodial order of pitch. This perhaps arises 
from an association of the protracted notes of song, with the 
expressive effect of long quantity in speech ; for extended 
quantity both in speech and song, is always the sign of either 
an energetic, or dignified state of mind. 

The radical and the median stress are applicable to the pro- 
tracted note of the discrete-melody ; but a varied swell of the 
median, constitutes the principal means of expression. The 
protracted note may also bear the tremor. 

Some of the less expressive forms of the wave may be ad- 
mitted into what I have called, without assigning a very defi- 
nite boundary to it, the discrete song. 

Our limited knowledge, in time-past, of the constituents of 
speech, together with our vague and imperfect notions and 
nomenclature of the states and actions of the mind, has created 
a difficulty in arranging the intermingled vocal signs of thought 
and passion. It is the same with song. We can assign no 
exact line to the difference between the discrete and the con- 
crete melody. It may however assist the purpose of system 
and nomenclature, to make an intermediate division, similar to 
that proposed in our sixth section, for the inter-thoughtive or 
sentimentive style. We will then apply the term Mixed me- 
lody, to a style consisting in part of the constituents of the 
other two. 

From some very general descriptions, and some known par- 
ticulars of the Greek song, it might be inferred that its most 
esteemed melody was of this Mixed character, enriched with 
all the concrete graces of expression, admissible into its struc- 
ture. I speak of song, rendered touching, self-relying, and 
unambitious ; song, with its all-sufficient melodial, and, as far 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SOXG. 649 

as then understood, its own peculiar harmonic resources for 
delight, free from vain intrusion of hard-taught difficulties ; 
and restricted to itself by the effective principles of Grecian 
taste. For we must suppose, nay we know from a satirical 
record j there was a like cold caprice in composition, and a like 
difficulty in execution for the profit of the Singer, and for the 
noisy excitement of an Athenian Audience, that at present so 
often slight the natural and universal feeling of the ear, to 
exalt the fantastic vanity of the fingers and the throat. 

In the intermediate style of Mixed melody, the simple dig- 
nity, pathos, grandeur, or gayety of the discrete, is combined 
with the more varied and expressive constituents of the con- 
crete melody ; thus forming a peculiar style of song. A style, 
which employed under the direction of feeling and taste, pro- 
duces effects in the highest degree impressive and delightful. 
A style that has been, is now, and ever will be, the most 
generally gratifying to the instinctive and esthetically educated 
ear; which, while it hears and may wonder at, yet rarely j 
without some technical association j feels any effect from con- 
crete flourishes, and agility in vocalization, striving to refine 
upon and to surpass itself. A style by which alone, in the 
form of the sentimentive * Aria,' the fantastic mannerism, and 
mongrel recitative of the Italian opera is preserved from the 
sadness of a scattered audience j except of those who go to look 
at one anothers' dresses, and to think of their own, and of 
themselves. 

It has been thought j the Cantus planus of the early Chris- 
tian Psalmody, improved afterwards to the Ambrosian and the 
Gregorian Chant, is a traditional descent of a form of Greek 
Temple-Music, through the old Roman ritual. However this 
may be, there is a striking analogy, both as to structure and 
effect, between the Diatonic melody, and the Plain-Chant, in it^ 
early simplicity. This Chant, we are told, employed hut four 
lines of the staff in the range of its pitch ; the succession of its 
notes was by proximate degrees, through the radical pitch of a 
second; it never set more than one note to a syllable: and 
used but two divisions of time, the long and the short. Now 
42 



650 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

ill this account, substitute the term Equable concrete for that 
of Note, and the resemblance is in many points remarkable. 
The Plain Chant is an example of what we have called the 
discrete melody, and in its use had originally, and when not 
desecrated by ' modern improvements ' of wider concrete and 
discrete intervals, and by affected graces 3 still has, in its holy 
purpose of worship and prayer, that deep and long-drawn note 
of solemn dignity, which is but a transcending degree of the 
character, given to epic and dramatic reading, and to parts of 
the Church-service, by the fulness and quantity of an orotund 
voice, in the diatonic melody.* 

* We have in the course of this work, pointed out similarities between the 
principles of Music and of Elocution, and have shown their very materials or 
tunable constituents, with the exception of the Note, to be common to both. 

The further we look into the Arts, the more closely we find them by their 
principles, related to each other: yet who will say, there is a resemblance 
between Architecture and Speech ? To the eye and ear of the Doorkeeper, who 
within the grandeur of the Capitol, was obliged to listen to Cicero, there could 
have been none. But turn an inquiring and reflective mind to a consideration 
of the causes that constitute, or create, a similarity between them^ and obsprve 
how, in the analytic Perspective of a philosophic taste, their conditions approach 
each other ; and with a still extended view, how, by the principles that direct 
them, they mingle into one. 

I have long thought of the analogy to which I here allude ; but believing it 
might pass for a metaphoric extravagance, rather than an illustration, I have 
not till this last moment, dared to call the Diatonic Melody, the Doric order of 
Speech. In this country at least, I have met with none, so much interested in 
the Esthetic principles of these arts, as to wish to discover, or desire to be told 
their points of resemblance. When however, I think of a Doric Peripteral 
Temple with its marble-purity, brightly distinct in structure and outline, to 
the neighboring eye, yet still distinctly traceable in distant prospect^ with 
its compendious Design at once upon my memory, in clearness of image second 
only to reality 3 I see an ambitious sameness in form and light, yet varied in line 
and shadow, just to show-forth the striking elegance of its Unity^ a Grandeur 
rising above heaviness, till it appears in Graces and a Simplicity, with only 
such appropriate ornaments as make them harmonious parts of an undivided 
whole. With this suggestive picture before me, it brings-up in related effect^ 
the likeness of Roscius again upon the Stage, breaking his silence, with the 
gravity and fulness of the thoughtive orotund ; and impressing the respectful 
ear by a simplicity in time and intonation 3 varied only to give grace to its 
dignity ; and rising occasionally, with contrasted interval and force to beautify, 
and not to destroy, the plain and impressive unity of diatonic speech. 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 651 

Second. Of Concrete-song. This melody, in its forms of 
intonation, time, and force, is varied from the limits of the 
Mixed style, to that intricate and affected composition of the 
extreme Bravura 3 "which by turning words into vowels, destroys 
the associative meaning of language ; and by a continued whirl- 
ing of these vowels, confounds every feeling excited by the 
more natural song. 

The means of expression in the unexaggerated forms of this 
melody include those of the Discrete and the Mixed ; with the 
addition of other more elaborate forms of intonation. The 
further use of the radical and median force on the rising and 
falling concrete, as well as on the wave, adds a brilliant variety 
to its character. We have in the Bravuras and Volatas of this 
kind of song, all the extraordinary coloring of the compound 
stress, in the production of the shake, and of the endless run 
of Divisions through their constituents of stress and pitch. 
It likewise commands the powers of the Tremulous scale, both 
through the plaintiveness of the semitone, and the laughing 
movement of wider intervals. 

Now all the forms of expression, both in the Concrete and 
the Discrete, whether of the grave, the gay, or the plaintive : 
and whether produced by pitch, time, quality, or force, are to 
be considered as independent of all purpose in thought or 
ing : for it will be shown presently, that except in some acci- 
dental or habitual associations, song lias, apart from the words 
which may accompany it, an «?iintellectual expression alto- 
gether of its oivn. 

As song employs in its composition, the expression*] means 
of speech, it might be supposed that certain movements must 
have in each case an identical effect. Yet it is not alwa; 
We have learned that some signs, as the semitone, the Laughing 
and crying tremor, and long quantity, do represent the same 
state of mind in both. There are however, many forms of intona- 
tion which lose their meaning and force when separated from 
words, and transferred to song. On the subjed of th< 
signs of thought and passion, it was shown ; their purpose ifi not 
only modified by the conventional sign, but is sometimes 



652 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

purely dependent upon it. This was illustrated by reference 
to the voices of birds : and song affords a still more satisfactory 
proof. For since its elaborate structure does employ all those 
forms of concrete and radical pitch, and of the wave, which 
produce the expression of speech, it would seem, we ought 
during the varied course of its melody, to be constantly recog- 
nizing the vocal signs of interrogation, surprise, positiveness, 
sneer, contempt, and raillery; whereas the florid song which 
makes the freest use of these signs, never conveys any of these 
states except when joined to language that describes them. 

Song, nevertheless, without the use of words, may be power- 
fully expressive ; and it is so by the use of these very concretes, 
quantities, waves, and swelling stresses, that give the thoughtive 
and passionative meaning to speech: yet the expression of 
song is peculiar to itself, and in very few, if any instances has 
relation to the thought or passion of particular words or 
phrases. Persons who enjoy the melody of song must perceive > 
the feelings created by it are so indefinite, that they are not 
able to refer them to any other source, than that of primary 
sensation, or subsequent memory and association ; nor to reduce 
the expression to anything more than certain classes of effects. 

Upon this subject I would ask two questions. Has song a 
system of expression properly its own, and does our indefinite 
perception of its forms arise from this system never having 
been analyzed and rendered familiar and specific by names? 
Or does the expression of song depend on an association be- 
tween its vocal movemets, and those of speech ; the former 
assuming the agreeable effect of the latter, without their definite 
meaning?* 

By a comparison of the characteristics of speech and of song, 
it appears that song has a system of expression of its own, dis- 
tinct in most points from that of speech. If the reader has 
followed me attentively thrus far, he must have a full knowledge 
of the vocal means of expression in speech ; and of the precepts 
at least for that expression, if Tie has not the power of accu- 
rately executing them. We here offer a few remarks on the 
expression of both song and speech. 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. Goo 

And first. No idea, thought, term, proposition or meaning 
is directly conveyed in song. By the melodial succession 
alone of its notes, it excites a state of mind, which we distinc- 
tively called feeling ; always agreeable, except under some 
accidental and pervertive association. But further, in song we 
are pleased with the quality of its notes ; and here, quality, in 
its prolongation, is more agreeable than in the concrete of 
speech. It is a question so inviting to dispute, that we will not 
stop to consider j whether these agreeable feelings are exclu- 
sively the direct result of the simple vocal impression, or are 
indirectly derived from memory and association ; and thus, in a 
manner, connected with thought. These feelings produced by 
the melodial succession of notes, and by their agreeable quality 
in prolongation, are therefore peculiar to song. 

After this view of the distinction between speech and song, 
we are prepared to hear, that a succession of intervals in 
song, when joined with the other modes of quality, time, and 
force, and properly distributed, is, by the melodial relations of 
those intervals, capable of exciting the feelings of Grandeur, 
Solemnity, Plaintiveness, Gayety, and Grace. And if to these 
be added what has been called a perception of Oddity, or the 
Grotesque, they will perhaps include all the effects, that inde- 
pendently of the individualities of fancy and the ear, seem to 
be within the expressive powers of song. We here exclude all 
those dreaming and false analogies, between sound and sense, 
which, to try something like a transcendental metaphor, are 
more remote than far-fetch'd, if a resemblance^ but infinitely 
distant, if at all a parallel ; such as are found in ' Alexander's 
Feast,' 'St. Cecilia's Day,' and the 'Ode on the Passions,' 
together with not a few in Haydn's ' Creation,' Handel's 
'Messiah,' and all throughout that once fashionable and serious 
folly, the 'Battle of Prague.' These pretensions and falsities 
hold the same relation to the real expression of Bong, thai 
shall endeavor to show the pretensions and falsities of Recita- 
tive do to the truth of expression in speech. 

Second. The agreeable expression of song by the ne 

Pitch, consists in the comparison of one note, with others of a 



654 A BKIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

proximate, or of a remote degree ; for song by its protracted 
notes j and by its key, which definitely marks the places of the 
tones, and semitones in the scale, has in the fixed places of its 
notes, the means for comparing them one with another, that 
they may be heard under what has been considered, a kind of 
harmony in melodial succession.* 

On the effect of this melodial succession of notes alone ■> with- 
out the individual note itself exciting or conveying thought, or 
other states of mind 3 the pitch of song altogether depends for 
the means of producing an agreeable feeling of whatever kind. 
But the resource of this melodial succession of notes, speech 
does not possess ; since its effects are derived from a power in 
the individual concrete, and individual discrete interval to ex- 
press thought and passion, independently of a comparison with 
preceding or following concretes. 

Third. The expression of concrete, and of discrete pitch, in 
the intonation of speech, differs both in character and cause, 
from that of the succession of the notes of song : though each 
is, in its own way, variously agreeable, according to the sus- 
ceptibility of the ear and intellect of an audience. Speech as 
far as regards its pitch, derives its expression solely from the 
extent and direction of the single concrete and discrete interval, 
and the wave. Thus plaintiveness is the effect of the single 
semitone ; interrogation and wonder, of the single wider up- 
ward j anger and command, of the single wider downward con- 
crete ; dignity, of the wave of the second ; and contempt and 
scorn, of the wider single or double waves : the expression 

* In the musical scale, the First, Third, Fifth, and Octave notes, -when heard 
together, are said to be concordant : and Harmony to the ear, not its theory, is 
the perception of the effect of simultaneous concordant notes. 

Melody to the ear, regarding only the mode of Pitch, is the perception of the 
effect of certain relationships between successive notes. 

Thus there are two conditions, in the effect of the notes of music: one simul- 
taneous ; the other successive. But the individual notes which produce har- 
mony are so impressive, that when heard in succession, the ear can compare 
the instant-passed, with the instant-present note; and thus perceive a harmo- 
nious relation between the presently audible and the memorial note. This is 
what I call in the text, harmony in melodial succession. 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF BONO, 655 

being here derived altogether from the individual interval 
and not from the relation of one interval to another* !■'■ >■ 
though a Fifth, for example, is emphatically perceptible in 
speech, by its contrast with a second, in a diatonic melody, it 
is not that contrast which gives the expression ; since the Fifth 
is alike interrogative, both in a thorough interrogative 
tence, where it is placed beside itself; and when it is unrelated 
to any other interval, on a neighboring syllabic. And the same 
may be said of every expressive concrete, either in series or 
solitary. The expression of speech, again to repeat the proposi- 
tion, is therefore derived from the concrete and discrete inter- 
vals alone: for speech having no System of Key to direct its 
progressions, cannot excite musical feeling by the harmony of 
melodial successions: since the perpetual sliding of its con- 
cretes, affords no stationary point nor continuous level line, by 
which a concord with any other point or line might be recog- 
nized. The words; second, third, fifth, octave, semitone, and 
wave, that in song convey the meaning of a melodial relation- 
ship j designate in speech, only concrete and discrete inter- 
vals; which in themselves, denote thought and passion, by their 
extent and direction, not by any harmonic or melodial relations 
to each other. 

We have said; the successions alone, of melody in song, with 
their varieties in time, and without embracing thought or mean- 
ing, produce its peculiar feeling or expression. Hence the 
permutations in the order of these uotes, for an agreeable suc- 
cession would seem to be innumerable. But the more agreeable 
successions; whether they affect the mind instinctively through 
the ear, or through habit, or by association with feelings 
derived from other senses; might perhaps with their appropriate 
expression, be reduced to a few melodial phrases, and thus be 
described and named. As far as 1 have been able to assign 
the agreeable effects of melody, to such phrases, the forms do 
not seem to be numerous; and are really bo simple, and com- 
paratively so few, that they probably have all been known and 
used in song, from immemorial time; \<i their intermingling 
successions, as it has happened with the long unknown and 



656 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

apparently confused phrases of intonation in speech 3 have to 
this day, prevented their being separately perceived and 
named. 

Composers are often charged with plagiary of certain agreea- 
ble passages of melody. But all these passages, or Phrases of 
Expression in song, as they may be called, have long been 
familiar to the ear, and enjoyed by feeling; and have come 
down to us without known Authorship or Date. On the subject 
of this combination of notes into agreeable phrases in the 
melodial succession of song, there can be no more originality, 
than on that of the combination of the elements into syllables of 
speech ; which in all their permutations, have throughout time, 
and among nations, already been made. The mass of Com- 
posers 3 like the mass of Writers with their common-places of 
thought and language 3 again and again borrow and repeat the 
common-place phrases of melody j while a few, like Bacon and 
Shakspeare, or Haydn and Mozart, choicely select and com- 
bine those striking, if not original thoughts, in one case, and 
expressive melodial phrases in the other, which, in their exalted 
association with nature and truth, are so far above being vul- 
garized by general adoption and imitation, as to seem to be 
always new, and destined to please forever. 

Under the class of phrases of expression in song, are included 
those groups of notes called Graces. And here, speech has 
nothing directly corresponding to the Beat, the Turn and 
Shake. Perhaps however, there is a remote analogy, in effect, 
between the median stress of speech and the appogiature ; the 
Tremolo, and the prolongation of the tremor on one line of 
pitch ; between the anticipative character of the prepared 
cadence, and the suspension of the shake preceding a close on 
the key-note of song. But why has song been so long without 
a classification of other phrases, with their peculiar and no less 
striking expression, than that of its ornamental Graces ? 

That song has its own peculiar expression, in no way con- 
nected with thought, or meaning of any kind, is proved by a 
well known fact in lyric history. It has long been the practice 
of song writers, to adapt their verses to the music of existing 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SOSTG. 

air- : nor, with an exception of the use of the major ami the 
minor mode, does this seem to have been done, under the idea 
of a peculiar fitness of certain melodial phrases of the Air, 
to the thought or passion of the words, since language of every 
different meaning and expression is adapted to the same air, 
and received as satisfactory, without the least perception of a 
want of congruity. 

I endeavored to show that the fullest effect of speech, is pro- 
duced by a union of the natural sign with the conventional ; I 
here leave others to inquire, whether a triple union of the 
natural and conventional sign of thought and passion in speech, 
with the peculiar expression of song, may give the highest de- 
light to the mind and the ear. 

I have thus furnished some desultory observations and reflec- 
tions, in answer to the questions above proposed ; and have 
endeavored to show that song has an expression of its own : 
upon the truth of which, if the subject deserves it, others must 
finally decide. 

AVe are now able to comprehend, why persons who sing with 
the greatest execution, are, under the present state of vocal 
instruction, rarely or never good readers. One reason may 
be found, in the difference of the respective movements ; 
and the frequent want of a full command over the equable 
concrete in all its varieties of time, by singers, who rarely 
employ it except fur the short quantities of the comic 
The principal reason however, why those distinguished by _ 
vocal flexibility in elaborate composition, are generally very 
indifferent actors 5 is that such intricate execution is always 
made with a sacrifice of expression. We have learned, that 
the discrete melody in its use of certain modes and forms of 
the voice, has an approximate identity with the express] 
speech: and although the mixed melody, with its varied con- 
crete and radical pitch, may have only a remote resemblance 
to the effect of those same constituents in speech, yet if 
peculiar and delightful expression of its own. lint the Bra- 
vura-artifice of the threat, occupied only with variety and 
wonder, admits into its purposes neither the dignified and 



658 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SONG. 

graceful feeling of song, nor the thoughtful nor passionative 
expression of speech. In it, long and short quantities, the 
radical explosion and the median swell, the diatonic succession 
and the chromatic, the plaintive and the laughing tremor, the 
various forms of the wave, concrete transitions and discrete 
skips from the deepest "bass to a piercing falsette, the com- 
pound stress in all its forms of shake and division, are made to 
play with each other in every variety of permutation. In 
short, as the voice like the throat of the mocking-bird, mingles 
all its possibilities, without regard to expressive design, the 
singer thereby confuses that instinctive association between 
thought and passion, and their vocal sign, which good speaking 
always requires ; and between feeling and a certain succession 
of notes, which should also be the means of expression in song. 
For the habitual practice of the ambitious and unmeaning Bra- 
vura, destroys, in a great degree, a perception of the original 
signs of feeling in song 3 in like manner as Mimicry perverts 
or destroys the original purpose of expression in speech : while 
the Bravura, by its artificial difficulties and contortions, de- 
stroys the command over the means, originally ordained for 
the expression both of speech and of song. If I had the 
opportunities of European experience, I might speak with 
greater knowledge and precision ; but as far as I have 
observed 3 singers who excel in the florid execution, acquired 
by the mere drill of the Conservatorio, and exercised in the 
routine of the Concert-room or the Stage, are not often gifted 
with nicety or comprehensiveness of conception, nor with that 
sensibility which sometimes accompanies a delicate organiza- 
tion of ear. For the temperament of a singer can as readily 
be perceived, in his peculiar management of time, stress, and 
intonation, as the thought and passion of an original and inde- 
pendent writer can be gathered from his style. 

What is called a musical ear, seems to depend on an inscru- 
table instinct, and the exercise of attentive observation by this 
sense : and though our history indicates, that high accomplish- 
ments in elocution must always be grounded on its discrimina- 
tions ; still the training of the ear, by those who excel in the 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 659 

affected difficulties of the Florid song, and the formal cha 
both of taste and feeling thereby rendered habitual ; must in a 
great measure, destroy the association between the state of 
mind and its vocal sign, constituting the proper express! 
speech. There have been Actors, who under an enlightened 
system of Elocutionary instruction, might have entered into 
the philosophy both of passion and speech; and who, by dis- 
cipline, could have reached the flexibility of florid execution in 
the singing voice. And yet we have reason to believe, that 
had this power over the intricacies of song, been habitually 
exerted, particularly under the absorbing vanity, so apt, in 
this case, to accompany success, it must have destroyed that 
command over the equable concrete, which would have enabled 
them to give their consummate intonation to the language of 
the tragic poet. We will suppose, Mrs. Siddons, with a nice 
perception of Time and Tune, might perhaps have joined-voice 
w r ith the incomparable Mara, in the expressive songs of Handel 
or Mozart, without impairing her power over Shakspeare. 
But she would have been lost forever to all the influence of 
thought and passion over speech, had she been trained with 
Catalini, to that wonderful facility which waa able to out-trip 
even the fashion-serving contrivances and difficulties of the 
composers of the day. 



OF RECITATIVE. 

The term Recitative is applied to the intonation used in cer- 
tain dramatic and vocal compositions. It had its name from 
being employed for narrative or recital, in contradistinction to 

the intonation of song, which was appropriated to express the 



660 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 

mental state of Feeling. Recitative is however employed at 
present in the Italian Opera, and other compositions, as the 
supposed means of expression, as well as for the common pur- 
poses of the dialogue. 

Nothing has puzzled musical logicians more than the attempt 
to define this term. 

Rousseau, in his dictionary, speaks of it thus : ' Recitative. 
A discourse recited in a musical and harmonious tone. It is a 
method of singing which approaches nearly to speech, a decla- 
mation in music, in which the musician should imitate as much 
as possible, the inflections of the declaiming voice.' 

Busby gives the following definition : ' Recitative. A species 
of musical recitation, forming the medium between Air and 
rhetorical Declamation, and in which the composer and per- 
former rejecting the rigorous rules of time, endeavor to imitate 
the inflections, accent, and emphasis, of natural speech.' 

One calls ' Recitative, a kind of singing that differs but little 
from ordinary pronunciation.' 

Another says, ' Recitative is speech delivered through the 
medium of musical intonation.' 

While others, still more general, describe it as, ' singing 
speech,' and, 6 speaking song.' 

Before we are aware of what we require in knowledge, we 
do not perceive how little satisfies us : and although we have 
yet much to learn on the subject of the voice, we have taught 
ourselves enough, to authorize the remark, that all these defi- 
nitions though written to instruct, contain no further explana- 
tion, than might be" given by the humblest auditor at an 
Oratorio. By the terms of all these definitions, Recitative is 
somehow made up of speech and song. As the elementary 
movements of song had, in a degree, been known and described, 
the meaning of its term in the definition, might have been 
intelligible. But, regarding speech, on which these definitions 
are in part constructed, let us hear Rousseau, under the very 
article we have quoted above. ' The inflections of the speak- 
ing voice ' says he, ' are not bounded by musical intervals. 
They are uncontrolled, and impossible to be determined.' 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. GG1 

An understanding therefore of the construction of Recita- 
tive, through a knowledge of its mingled or interwoven con- 
stituents, song and speech, the latter of which is thus declared 
to be utterly inappreciable 3 must according to Rousseau at 
least, require some other powers of comprehension, than we at 
present possess. For having no perception of the character- 
istics of one of the constituents, his knowledge of Recitative 
seems to have been, if I may be allowed to jest, not unlike that 
of our personal acquaintance with the heads of a family, when 
the father is married to an inaudible, intangible and invisible 
woman. 

In general description, Speech, Song, and Recitative, are 
varied forms of intonation ; deriving their specific differences 
from the number, kind, and combination of their respective 
vocal movements. Having described the melodial peculiarities 
of Speech, and Song, which are the only divisions of vocal ex- 
pression founded on instinctive indications, let us by the light 
of our history, endeavor to point out the characteristics of the 
artificial intonation of Recitative. 

The Plainest style of Recitative, for its style varies, is charac- 
terized by the following construction. 

First. It has no systematic rythmus or musical measure in 
the progression of melody. 

Second. It never gives more than one note to a single syl- 
lable ; while song sometimes runs several short notes over one. 

Third. It employs the protracted radical and protracted 
vanish and the wave, on long quantities j and occasionally the 
equable concrete on short ones. 

Fourth. Its melodial intervals, or the discrete movements 
of its radical pitch, are of every extent, both in upward and 
downward transition. 

Fifth. It employs the means of time, force, quality, abrupt- 
ness and intonation. 

These are the simple constituents of Plain Recitative: and 
the following are some of the principles of their application. 

The melodial succession variously consists of the monotone, 
and of other phrases, through every interval of radical pitch. 



662 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 

It makes no systematic distinction between a diatonic ground- 
work, and the contrasted emphasis of wider intervals, which 
gives effective power, dignity, and expression to speech : the 
successions of its pitch being rather according to the promis- 
cuous mingling of song. I have not recognized, in what is 
called unaccompanied recitative, an application of the doctrine 
of key ; its melodial relationships having in this respect the 
characteristic of speech. The cadence or full pause is made 
by phrases of every form, from the monotone, to the rising and 
falling discrete octave ; while the current melody consists of the 
protracted radical, or protracted vanish, with an occasional 
rising and falling concrete and wave. All these constituents 
are so intermingled and arranged by the composer, as not only 
to suit that caprice, he may choose to call Expression, but also 
to give that order to the constituents > he may choose to call 
Melody. If however we give up our belief, upon authority, 
that Recitative is wonderfully expressive, we may understand, 
as well as plainly hear, how this supposed variety, founded on 
wider intervals and waves, with a frequent recurrence of upward 
and downward skips, and with so many plunging cadences, may, 
by its constant and violent obtrusions, be shockingly monoto- 
nous to the Natural Science of an ear, accustomed to a true 
vocal expression, under the easy and gratifying variety of cul- 
tivated speech. 

Such being the structure of Recitative, its expression can 
have but little resemblance to that of the speaking voice. Com- 
paring its plainest form above described, with the intonation of 
speech, which it pretends to borrow 3 its only means of expres- 
sion on individual syllables, for its current has none, are in- 
cluded under the following heads. 

First. The expression of slow and of rapid utterance ; and 
of long and of short quantity. 

Second. That of the degrees of force ; both as to emphasis 
and drift. 

Third. That of quality ; particularly of guttural vibration, 
and aspiration. 

Fourth. That of intonation ; by the occasional employment 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 663 

of the discrete rising fifth or octave, for inquiry ; of the down- 
ward skip, for positive or imperative declaration ; and of the 
wave of the semitone and the minor third, for plaintiveness. But 
even these are mingled with unmeaning intervals, and so dis- 
tracted by them, that like the same intervals in the throat of 
the mocking-bird, they lose much, if not all their expressive 
character. Nor indeed are they applied according to invariable 
rule : for I have heard true interrogative words, intonated 
with a simple monotone, or ditone ; declarative questions with 
a downward fifth, or octave ; and forcible imperatives, with the 
widest ascending intervals. This, with the ' Little Book ' and 
pencil in hand, was noted at the Opera. 

Plain Recitative at once strikes the common ear as very 
remarkable, and so distinct from speech and song, that its 
structure, and its character 3 for it can scarcely be regarded as 
expressive to a natural ear 3 must when compared with the struc- 
ture and expression of speech and of song, give a definite percep- 
tion of these three vocal functions, and enable us to point-out 
what is peculiar to each. We perceive, that one cannot assume 
the character of another, without dropping its own character, 
and becoming altogether that other: and that definitions which 
set-forth Recitative, as a musical intonation of speech, or an 
engrafting of the inflections of speech on song, or of song on 
speech, are without either clearness or truth. We can further 
perceive, that as speech never employs the protracted notes, 
but always the equable concrete, or its modifications, it does 
not, through this broad distinction, partake in effect, of the 
character of song or of recitative ; while both these, using the pro- 
tracted notes, are more nearly related; and with slight change 
do mutually pass into each other. And so it happens, that the 
singer often gradually passes over the above described Plain 
Recitative, to the florid execution, by freely introducing all the 
intonations of song. Hence instead, of this plain construction 
with its few constituents, he introduces to a greater or Less 
extent, the rising and the falling concrete in all their forms; 
tremors, notes, waves, and even divisions and shakes: in Bhort, 
while applying these constituents, under a barred and rythmic 



664 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 

time, lie does, in effect, produce the full characteristic of song 
itself. 

Of these three forms of intonation, it thus appears, that 
Speech and Song, both by construction and effect, are most 
unlike each other ; that even the plainest Recitative, by con- 
struction more nearly resembles song, and in its execution by 
vocalists, most readily runs into it ; that Speech has the most 
extended and delicate powers of expression ; since there is in 
it, the union of a conventional language with an instinctive 
intonation, and a perfect adaptation of one to the other ; that 
Song, exclusively of words, by the succession of its notes, and 
concrete intervals, and other forms of intonation, together with 
quality, quantity, and force, has its own peculiar manner of 
exciting feelings of grandeur, pathos, gayety, and grace ; and 
that Recitative, which, by one of the not unfrequent delusions 
of perception, was originally introduced, and has since been 
continued for centuries, as embracing within itself the charac- 
teristic expression of both speech and song, does, by this vain 
effort to join two incompatible functions, really destroy the 
peculiar and delightful character of each. 

Composers may among themselves have framed rules for a 
conventional meaning in Recitative, to which being long accus- 
tomed, they may have come at last to believe them to be the 
rules of instinctive expression. If those, not under this influ- 
ence of habit, do sometimes listen with pleasure to Recitative, 
or say they do 3 is it not, that this vocal Oddity having been 
invented, or restored in modern Italy 3 Italy has, on this point, 
assumed to give law to musical taste ; that it is expected at the 
Opera; and that it is carelessly heard, in anticipation of the 
succeeding Air ? Such associative influences too often per- 
vert our judgment and reconcile us to a vitiated taste. Be- 
sides, it is as far, in the present state of the human mind, 
from being true, in Art, as it is in Government 3 that an 
allowed dictatorial authority, except in the saving-energy of a 
desperate case, is a protection against error and corruption. 
The Architecture of Italy, with a sort of prescriptive right to 
direct the world, has in most of its departments, from the old 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 665 

Roman, downward, done as much violence to the principles of 
unity, grandeur, simplicity, order, and cautious variety, as tin- 
false pretensions of Recitative have done to the true and beau- 
tiful system of vocal expression both in speech and song. 

After Recitative, by some capricious straining after novelty, 
was introduced, it became an object with the reflective part of 
its votaries, as well it might, to find some reason to justify its 
use. With this view, it was by a strange conceit, classed 
among the Imitative arts; and its peculiar intonation was -up- 
posed to be a refined copy of common speech, raised to the 
Beau Ideal of vocal expression. 

The following free translation of an extract from an article 
by Marmontel, in the French Encyclopedia of Diderot, under 
the word Recitative, describes this ' theory.' ' When the Italians 
proposed to give a melody to theatric declamation, the purpose 
in joining music with it, like that in exalting prose into poetry, 
was to embellish nature in imitating her. That is, to give to 
declamation a character more agreeable to the ear, and if pos- 
sible, more exciting to the feelings than that of natural speech ; 
without however, altering too far, the form of the Archetype : 
but so ordering the refined imitation, that it might not obscure 
the purpose and means of the original.' And again j ' If then 
it is true, that song, like verse in relation to prose, does em- 
bellish speech in imitating it, thereby throwing an elegant illu- 
sion over its character, we should not reject this additional 
pleasure of taste ; and whoever is endowed with a delicate ear, 
will not complain, on hearing speech delivered in a Binging 
voice.' 

We are sorry to differ from M. Marmontel: and though we 
may not have that delicate ear, and therefore may have no 
right to complain, yet with a taste acquired in the school of 
nature, we cannot approve. And here, notwithstanding an 
early resolution, only to observe and record, to which however 
I have not been able always to adhere j I feel myself compelled 
to offer a transient argument, in dissenting from the unfounded 
notions on this subject. 

The theory of Imitation assumed common conversation, 
43 



666 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 

which it called the 'natural tonej' to be the archetype or pat- 
tern. The more deliberate and impressive style of the theater, 
and of public oratory, was called Declamation ; and was the 
First remove in ' imitation ' from the natural tone. This de- 
clamation, when Chanted by the voice alone, or with the instru- 
mental company of something like a varied drone-bass, was 
called Plain Recitative ; and its further remove from common 
speech, and approach towards song, was the Second degree of 
imitation. Recitative accompanied by instruments, in a barred 
and rythmic harmony, formed the Third degree of imitation, 
and a still further remove from the 'natural tone,' or common 
speech : while Song, or what is called Air, was supposed to 
have the least resemblance to it. 

Now, by the light of our history, the reader may perhaps 
perceive the fallacy of this assumption. Language is a sign of 
the mind, not a copy of it. Common speech then, is the sign 
of thought and passion, and in no sense of the term, an imita- 
tion of them. Declamation is speech itself, in a more impres- 
sive use of its constituents. Plain recitative employs some 
intonations, not used in speech, and makes a false or garbled 
application of those that are j and consequently is no imitation 
of it. Accompanied recitative has still greater differences from 
speech than the Plain, though of similar character and effect. 
While Air, or Song having its own peculiar use of notes and 
intervals, with its own peculiar expression, can have no resem- 
blance whatever to speech ; and cannot therefore be an imita- 
tion of it. Thus we learn that common speech is an original 
function, planned for itself alone ; and to speak figuratively, 
only copied, if at all, from Nature's secret pattern of its pur- 
pose : nor has Nature herself ever copied anything from it. 
But conceitful man, in trying to beautify, by imitating her as 
he supposed $ at last blundered into Recitative ; the original, or 
even abortive archetype of which is not to be found in the 
natural voice of all this peopled earth. And if drawn by Plato's 
First Philosophy from the skies 3 when, in the Sacred name of 
Urania, has any imagined audience of the heavenly choir, ever 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 667 

reported an example of its vocal oddity and monotonous affec- 
tation ! 

Another reason, assumed to justify the use of Recitative, 
was 3 that as speech is so widely different from song, in its 
effects upon the ear ; and as the louder sound, and stronger 
contrast of intonation, together with the peculiar and different 
kind of expression in song, are much more striking than the 
4 natural tone,' it was supposed, there should be some interme- 
diate function, partaking of the character of each, to unite 
their succession, with less violence to the ear. The instances 
of things, both in nature and art, in favor of this idea of 
gradual transition, are not more numerous than the instances 
of abrupt changes that oppose it ; and as no argument can 
therefore be drawn from this source, we must consider the case 
in itself. 

On the ground then of our history of the voice, we cannot 
admit, there is the least reason in good taste, or the demands of 
the ear, for this interposition of Recitative. How does the 
principle apply to that universal function of Speech, the Equa- 
ble Concrete, when a gradual vanish leads us out of the full 
and abrupt opening of the radical, and not gradually from 
silence, into it f Do the first notes of song, in a favorite 
melody, ever require more than their own delightful impression, 
to introduce them from silence or from speech ? Who, in the 
Church-service, calls for a motley midway of intonation, in 
passing from prayer and benediction, to the chant and the 
anthem ? And what, in the decent pride of consistency, be- 
comes of this principle of gradual transition, when the voice 
passes abruptly from silence to the striking peculiarity of thifl 
very Recitative ; and again, when in an unknown language, it 
passes from this gibberish, both of words and expression, to the 
deafening jargon of melody, harmony, and articulation, in the 
over-strained voices and instruments of a full operatic chorus. * 

* We had lately an instance in one of our Cities, of what nr\ Italian Opera 
can play-off upon the ignorance or inattention of an audience; hy the first and 
and second Tenor, and Bass, severally singing and reciting their parts in 
Italian, German, and French. The next day the amateurs and critics were 



668 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 

The design of this theory of mediation, to prevent the violent 
contrast between speech and song, has rendered the whole 
course of the Opera j when not relieved by the occasional 
variety of the delightful Aria, and by passages of exquisite 
orchestral harmony $ a continued monotony, to him whose ear 
has not been contorted by fashion, and who admits our view of 
the principles of Drift ; for these show that in speech Nature 
has seemed to guard the ear against the false, and too frequent 
use of wide and expressive intervals, by making such a use 
always monotonous and offensive. There are no unnecessary 
chasms in the designs of Nature, though the works of man are 
full of them. When therefore he comes to study her purpose 
in the voice, he will find no gap between speech and song, to be 
passed by the Ponticello $ no, the JPonte-rotto of Recitative.* 

very indignant, at the Troupe-leader's impudence. Strange complaint! when 
to the good sense of an English ear, the whole in ' choice Italian,' is impudent 
enough, without adding two other jargons, that nobody was attentive enough 
to perceive. 

* In referring above, to the undistinguishable words and expression of Reci- 
tative, in a foreign language ; and to the deafening vowels of an Opera-Chorus, 
I do not so particularly allude to the Italian language, as to that unintelligible 
plain-English, which seems to be the common mother-tongue of so many of its 
singers. I lately heard in translation, the Oratorio of 'Joseph and his 
Brethren;' and throughout Solo, Duett, and Chorus 3 Soprano, Tenor, and 
Bass, I did not recognize, with the exception of now and then an interjection, 
twenty words, so distinctly, as to know what they were. They had better 
have been in Japanese, for there would then have been no vexatious longing for 
what they pretended to be, and no endeavor to understand them. As to that 
clashing of Quality, and discord in intonation, the necessary vocal vices of a 
vociferating crowd 3 f Quousque tandem abutere, Coryphseus, patientia nos- 
tra V When will the Mob-like Chorus of the Opera cease its confounding uproar ? 
For while each and all, in musical strife, are straining both voice and instru- 
ment into one time-beaten noise 3 who has ever heard a smoothly moderated 
note, or an articulated word from any one of them ? This is not the choice of 
uncorrupted nature in the human ear. It belongs to the whooping savage of an 
early age. In our own time, it comes from the Composer and the Audience 
reciprocally vitiating each other's taste. And it only adds another to the unnum- 
bered inconsistencies of the mind and the senses, when in Christian Countries, 
after weekly returns, in our Churches, of delight at the impressive grandeur 
and grace of the subdued harmony of the Choir ; and after once hearing the 
refined solemnity of the Choral Prayer in Masaniello, we can bear to be deafened 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 

From the violence offered by Recitative, to our vocal-habits, 
St. Evremond long ago formally questioned its claims to the 

merits of propriety, and taste. This is a very Btrong r 
for surely, no one ever did recognize or cnter-into the expres- 
sion of this extraordinary intonation, if he had not by the 
authority, or the daily practice of the Conservatorio, been 
drilled out of the instinct of a natural ear into a forced belief 
that it is the only Artistic style for displaying the elevated 
character of dramatic thought and passion. But this argument, 
like that against many other things at first very shocking, may 
be refuted by custom and time. Our objection is drawn from 
another source. It has been shown, that speech being founded 
on a universal and identical understanding and practice among 
mankind, has a system of verbal and vocal signs, for thought, 
and passion, often indeed perverted and corrupted, but never 
overruled and changed to a different system : while song, like 
instrumental music, has a system of intonation altogether its 
own, for the expression only of what we called Feeling, and 
totally independent of verbal signs. From a close observation 
of these distinctions, and a studious search after any Bystem of 
vocal signs, which for human purposes, might be admissible, 
we have insisted, that besides these two functions, speech and 
song, the voice has no other universal means of expression : 

by the brazen-racket of a certain red-headed scene in Norma, as ' got up ' in 
our Country. 

It may be said, • there is a style appropriate to the Church.' And so, it is 
equally proper, that in every place music, in its part?, should be distinctly 
heard; its expression unconfusedly felt ; and the drum of the c:ir not be torn 
by its unmerciful violence. But further, the critic tells us, this scene in Norma 
presents the true vocal and military costume, and ' carroty-locks,' of the time and 
place in which the action is laid. Be it so. Are we therefore in any way, to 
sacrifice taste to an outlandish costume in sight, or scent, or sound '.' And be- 
cause some shouting Celts, like beings of a Hotter clime ' clashed on their 
sounding shields the din of war,' and are allowed, 'highly to rage, and hurl 
defiance' against civilized ears upon a modern Stage; how could we blame an 
Author who, in search of novelty, should locate his Opera among a Horde of 
Tartars, and who, with reference to the dramatio costume, and to the truth of 
his Btory, should bring his Soprano, Tenorc and Basso assolato : the reader 
allowing the homely similitude and phrase i to 'wet their whistles' for a Trio, 
over a steaming cauldron of the usual daintiest-flesh of their country. 



670 A BKIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 

that from their separate characters, their uses are not compati- 
ble with each other or interchangeable ; and that any attempt 
to institute other signs, for a just expression of thought and 
passion in one case, and of feeling, in the other, is like an 
endeavor to create anew the voice and mind of man. Thus our 
preceding objections are not in any degree drawn, except un- 
consciously, from a contest of our own personal with a prevail- 
ing conventional taste ; nor entirely, from the debatable 
ground, of the violence offered at first to the unaccustomed ear : 
for we have endeavored to found them upon a survey of the 
respective means and purposes of speech and song ; and thereby 
to show, that the modern invention of Recitative, which as a 
'refined copy of theatric declamation,' was designed to effect a 
more exalted expression, by engrafting song on speech, is, by 
the light of analysis, and the test of an unenslaved ear, after 
all, but a fiction, and therefore by the doom of all fictional phi- 
losophy, ought to be a failure. 

This conclusion will certainly be considered by the Masters 
•of music, and their world of followers, as highly audacious : 
but it has been thought upon, much longer with reference to 
truth, than to opinion ; and we appeal from prescriptive preju- 
dice, and the inflexibility of the musical mind, to a liberal and 
a docile sense, instructed by the history of an inflexible ordina- 
tion in the uses of the human voice. But notwithstanding all 
our objections, Recitative will still continue to be a fancied and 
therefore self-sufficient delight of the Opera ; just as the artifi- 
cial taste for Alcohol and its associate, that Nauseous Weed, 
will, among craving and restless wanderers in sensation, regard- 
less of the warning and the penalty of disease and death, con- 
tinue to supply the place of self-contented purposes, in productive 
occupation, and in educated thought. 

We owe the modern creation, or supposed revival of Recita- 
tive, in part, to the fatal influence of that vampire of Classic 
authority, which, while fanning us into a learned and vain- 
glorious stupefaction, has for ages, on more subjects than one, 
been drawing out the life-blood of our intellectual independence. 
The ignorance of both the Greeks and the Romans, upon the 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 671 

subject of the voice, obliged them to describe their limited per- 
ceptions, by loose explanation and indefinite metaphor : and 
We have been contented, in this as in some other of their arts, 
to take a record of the poverty of their knowledge, as the his- 
toric scraps of a system, regarded by the modern scholar, if it 
was not by themselves, as little short of perfection. The 
learned world has teased itself into despair, by attempts to dis- 
cover, wherein consisted the inimitable charm of Greek poetical 
recitation ; and thereby to illustrate the expressive means of 
that ' melodious language,' which when writers on the human 
voice shall fully understand their subject, they will admit to be 
very little more melodious, or as they will then mean, more 
rythmic than their own. ' Among the Greeks,' says Rousseau : 
and his classical scholarship and musical-philosophy may well 
represent the rest in this matter j ' among the Greeks, all their 
poetry was in recitative.' And again j 'The Greeks could 
sing in speaking, but among us, we must either sing or speak ; 
we cannot do both at the same time.' With such a miraculous 
physiology, no wonder, there should have been modern altars 
to this still 'Unknown God' of the power and perfection of 
ancient speech: nor that Pulci the poet, in reciting his Mor- 
gante Maggiore, as we are told, at the table of Lorenzo de- 
Medici, should have imagined himself to be the happy instru- 
ment of a needed revelation, of the method of Grecian dra- 
matic-recitative, or of Homer's declamatory song. 

If there is any truth and consistency in nature; the human 
voice in its mechanism, its principles, and its uses for thought, and 
-ion, and for the feeling of song, lias been the same, wherever 
these states of mind have been the same. And as the earliest 
writings, and other records of the earliest nations, exhibit the 
same respective characters of mind, existing at the present 
day, we must conclude; if the Greeks did not use their v<>' 
according to the laws of nature, as we acknowledge and fulfil 
them-; they must by our decision at least, have used them Im- 
properly; and thus have defeated the intention of those laws. 
When therefore, in the contemptuous language of classical 

larship, we are told, we Cannot speak and sing at the same 



672 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 

time 3 we, scholars of Nature and inquiry, must say, the Greeks 
could not speak and sing at the same time. 

Notwithstanding a universal confidence in the taste of the 
Greeks, we cannot believe, they were free from gross and uni- 
versal faults, in their Art of speech, on which they have left 
us neither method nor rule : since we know how they violated 
their own established principles, in some of their boasted, and 
recorded arts. 

The selfish and tasteless schemes of the Statesman, the osten- 
tatious authority, and equal selfishness of the Priesthood, and 
the inflexible formality of a Ceremonial worship, may, in the 
Vocal-Ritual, as well as in Temple-Architecture, and in Sculp- 
ture, have continued the enormities of some ruder age, or 
courted a time-serving variety in the fashion of newer faults ; 
all in flagrant, and therefore unconscious inconsistency with 
their methodic principles of Fitness, Unity, Grandeur, Har- 
mony, Proportion, and Grace. In proof, let us learn how this 
fitness, and unity, and grandeur were marred, even by the 
renowned Phidias, in his renowned Minerva, by assigning her 
a labor of strength, not of wisdom, in balancing a victory on 
her palm ; with a sculptured form made up of ivory and gold, 
surrounded by an enriched and costly farrago of accessory 
decoration, all suitable indeed to the ' pomp and vanity ' of the 
Priest, and to the ignorant wonder of the Devotee ; but to the 
eye of an uncontrolled Grecian Artist, holding in material, or 
color, or accessory, or foraij no unitizing relations, either of 
harmony or contrast. Let us learn too, how fitness and pro- 
priety were outraged by discordantly perching a statue aloft, 
on each angle of a Doric pediment ; and by striping the imma- 
culate whiteness of an external entablature with some gaudy 
and dis-gracing paint. In further and still existing proof, let 
us go ourselves to the celebrated Erectheum, on that all- 
observed Athenian Acropolis ; and bearing in mind the unity, 
simplicity, order, proportion, and symmetry, which in a Perip- 
teral Temple, impressed themselves, all at once, on the eye of 
the beholder j we must perceive those principles neglected in 
this unbalanced plan, as if unknown or forgotten ; a plan and 



A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 673 

superstructure confusing even to us, but to the reflective eye of 
a Grecian Artist, unbiased by obligation to the priesthood or 
the people, presenting only the distraction of undetermined 
entrances, with unconformable fronts, and flanks ; of unequal 
and awkward elevations on a hill-side ; and of excrescences, 
vainly claiming by some trifling merits in detail, to be uniting 
and co-expressive parts of a self-discordant whole. But we 
have not yet done with this un-grecian Erectheum. Its Cary- 
atid-portico, if designed as an emblem of Grecian enmity, has 
by that enmity, betrayed a lapse of excellence in Grecian 
taste. We still see in columns changed to Caryan women, 
with the conceit of reeded draperies, how these ' Arts of Taste 
that civilize mankind,' while leading on to the grotesque, forgot 
their rules not only of unity, fitness, order and propriety, but 
of humanity itself j in recording an ungenerous and degrading 
vengeance to the memory- of a fallen foe. 

Thus if we weigh the ail-but faultless merits of Grecian taste 
in its own balance, we may, from some overpoise of prejudice, 
or authority, sometimes find it wanting. On the subject of 
the voice, the Greeks having no oratorical physiology as we 
may call it, could have had no well founded or influential rules. 
We are free therefore to imagine grosser violations of taste in 
the practice of their Speech, than we find in the choice produc- 
tions of some of their Arts, which we know to have been gene- 
rally directed by principles deep-founded and exact. If the 
history of the voice, contained in this work, authorizes the con- 
clusion, we may rest in a belief, that could we have a dreaming 
revelation of the manner of their hicrophants, orators, players, 
sophists, street-criers, and school-boys, we would awake to 
record a chapter of criticism, very much like our fiftieth sec- 
tion, on the Faults of Readers in the nineteenth century. 

The style of that vocal perfection which the Roman eulo- 
gist, by the privilege of his poetry, figuratively ascribes t<> the 
inspiration of the Muse, may, in the chant of the Odeum, the 
declamations of the Theater, and the recitation of the Olympic 
Games, have been with the Greeks, a greater departure from 
the rule of nature, than they sometimes exhibited, in a de- 



674 A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF RECITATIVE. 

parture from their liigli and all-sufficient principle of unity in 
Material, by the discordant assemblage of gold, and ebony, 
marble, ivory and wood in their most celebrated statues : or in 
the violation of their own eternal rules of simplicity, grandeur, 
unity, decorum, and grace, exhibited in the Erectheumj placed, 
as it would seem, to make its faults more glaring 3 placed in 
' audacious neighborhood,' beside the all-surpassing Parthenon. 

I return from this digression, to remark, that ignorant as we 
are of the real vocal practice of the Greeks, the reader who has 
attentively considered and who comprehends the descriptions 
in this essay, will be satisfied to conjecture for himself, what 
they did if it was wrong ; and to decide what it was, if they 
knew, and did what is right. 

If then Signor Pulci did delight the adulated and munificent 
Lorenzo, by the recovery of some lost conventicle or canting 
tune, in vogue with the ancient Altar and the Stage 3 it might 
allow the conjecture, that some Recitative-corruption of speech 
had come down by tradition from Homer, or Tyrteus, or was in 
latter days, by some capricious influence, imposed upon the 
servile ear : just as many of the laws of musical expression are 
in this generation, overborne with like distortion, by the inve- 
terate dogmas of the composer, the masked tyranny of fashion, 
and the consenting slavery of mankind.* 

* At an early stage of these inquiries, I collected a few materials on the sub- 
ject of Greek Accent: and then contemplated subjoining to this essay, some 
remarks upon it. But perhaps the obscurity, inconsistencies, and meager phi- 
losophy of this worried topic of classical heresy and faith, are now sufficiently 
apparent, by the light of our preceding analysis. The self-delusion of national, 
like that of personal vanity, are peculiar to no age or people : and one can see 
about him every day, enough of the boast of empires, and of men, to make him 
scrutinize the rolls of fame, blazoned by the same genus of vainglory and of 
credulity, two thousand years ago. 

We know all the stories about barbarian ambassadors being delighted with 
the music alone, of a language they did not understand : and of that universal 
acuteness and 'proud judgment of the ear,' which made the Athenian herb- 
women and porters speak with all the purity of the Academy. Yet we should 
have other proof than the report of grammarians : and should find them writing 
with more fulness and precision, on a subject they are said to have understood 
so well, before we can believe, that in this matter, the Greeks were at all 



CONCLUSION. 

Here I conclude the cursory view of the physiological func- 
tions of Song and Recitative : having ayoided therein, every 
thing like a practical application of the subject. Some i 
better qualified than myself may be disposed to prosecute the 
inquiry. In the first part of this work, the voeal signs of 
expression in speech are set-forth by an elementary description 
of their particular forms. An analysis of the forms of expres- 
sion in Song, by the light of that description, and according to 
the hints here thrown-out, would be interesting, and might be 
successful. Nothing could give me more pleasure than to assist 
in its development. But this would lead me from some other 
designs of duty ; and I have too impatient a perception of the 
wasted experience, and profitless logic, which daily p resent 
themselves in the changeful errors of my Profession, not to 
desire to use in its service, a Method of Philosophy which I hope 
will be found to have been effectual here. 

For reasons that are known to more than to myself, but 
which the public need not at present know, I laid aside a Prac- 

superior to ourselves; and if they did 'speak and sing at the same time,' that 
they were not, when we except the singing-speech of the Quakers, even below 
us, in the proper uses of the voice. 

If one should be even disposed to believe in the vocal perfection of the 
Greeks, through any other than their own testimony, he might well question 
the authority of their Roman eulogists : since they themselves, the pupils of 
the Greeks, display no better analysis and system in their institute of elocution. 
We may fairly estimate their discrimination, when with the same pen that deals 
out the extravagancies of praise upon the oratorical action of their masters, 
they gravely give us, as proof too of their own nicety in vocal matters, the 
story of one of their famous orators having occasion for a Pitch-pipe, to enable 
him to recognize his own voice, and affectedly to govern his melody, through 
the more acute perceptions of a slave, who now and then blew this little regu- 
lating trumpet at his elbow ! ! 

Should I be obliged to hold an opinion upon the subject of ancient acvent : 
the fixed appropriation of an acute, grave, or circumflex movement of the \ 
to individual syllables, being utterly inconsistent with a proper 01 eh g 

tern of intonation, would induce me to believe : the Ghreekfl and Romas 
always mean stress alone, by their idea of the accentual function: but bad con- 
nected with it a crude theory of pitch, formed perhaps out of some frag- 
ments of Egyptian, or Eastern science, or fancy; which Pythagoras, 01 wh 
imported them, did not thoroughly understand. 



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